


It Takes Two

by Poteto



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Homophobia, KyouHaba Week, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Unresolved Romantic Tension, introvert Kyoutani
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-16 16:23:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4631970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poteto/pseuds/Poteto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are some things that you simply can't do by yourself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You shouldn't smile your way out of fights

**Author's Note:**

> You probably guessed by now, but this is my contribution to Kyouhaba Week! I'll try to post one chapter per day, which may seem a bit rushed, but I hope somebody will read this anyway. The chapters are rather short, so it won't take you a lot of time too.  
> To be honest, I'm not quite satisfied with this chapter, I think the next ones are more interesting and I'm not used to writing from Kyoutani's point of view, but hey. I had to start somewhere..  
> Today's prompt is Smile! Enjoy the chapter!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kyoutani understands Yahaba's hatred.

"Where's Kyoutani?" A familiar voice asks.

Kyoutani recognizes Yahaba's voice. He knows that Yahaba is referring to him. But he doesn't move or make any effort to be noticed from where he's hiding. The dark corner beneath the stairs seemed like a perfect place to hide after he hurriedly showered in the locker room and left before anybody else. He almost walked into a group of Aobajohsai third years that didn't play today, so he decided he should just hide until everyone left. He wanted to go home without being bothered. He didn't think this through, though. He didn't think that there was a high chance that the rest of his teammates would have to walk down the very same stairs to go home.

"Don't know." A second voice replies. "Did he leave already?"

Kyoutani shivers. It's Iwaizumi and his voice is hoarse. Kyoutani is very aware that it's from crying after they lost the game. After Kyoutani let them down.

Kyoutani Kentarou always had trouble with dealing with people. They always said the little Kentarou was nothing but a smaller version of his grumpy, asocial father and, to be honest, he agreed with them. He never knew how to make small talk and hated it when strangers on the street tried to speak with him, so he started to scowl for no reason thinking that, if he looked scary enough, people would stay away. He was 10 when he realized that his face was stuck in a permanent frown, his brows always furrowed even when he wasn't annoyed. He thought of it as a good thing, after all it kept strangers from approaching him. 

It seemed perfect, except that Kyoutani was a healthy boy and he had lots of energy to spare, but no friends to play with. It was upsetting and frustrating and he lived in a constant state of impatience until his father took him to play volleyball. Kyoutani loved it. He finally got something that was exciting and fun to do... except the people part. Kyoutani had never really fitted in a team. As long as he kept scoring, it would be fine (or at least he told himself so.) However there was some sort of emptiness inside his chest when he saw everyone else on the team hanging out after practice and talking strategies to win.

Kyoutani didn't particularly want to stay with them, but it felt odd -  _bad_  - to be left outside. It felt worse when their miscommunication affected their team play and they went from a fairly good team with a brilliant ace to a very bad team that couldn't win for shit.

Going to Aoba Johsai - the strongest school he could get in - was frustrating and unworthy. There were strong players, but Kyoutani could never fit in. They couldn't stand Kyoutani and Kyoutani could never get along with them. It was so miserably disappointing  that he just started to skip practice for a long time. Now he regrets it. For a moment on that day - a blissful, but terribly short moment - he fitted in. He was part of the team. He played along with his teammates and he thought that everything was going to be right... but they lost. It was such a tiny difference, but they lost.

If only Kyoutani hadn't missed the training... If only he had scored more points... If had got his shit together just _a single set_  earlier...! 

"He just ran away after he showered." Oikawa says. "I think he went home."

"No way!" Another voice calls. It must be Watari. "Someone must find him. We're supposed to go eat together!"

"Yeah, we need more people to spend Oikawa's money!"

Kyoutani cringes on the same spot. He doesn't want to go with them. He doesn't want to face any of them. Not when he got so close to achieve what he wanted and yet couldn't get it. Because everything is over now: the third years are graduating and he had spent enough time on practice to overhear the second years commenting on whom would be the next captain. A captain that wouldn't let him stay on the team and that hated him. Yahaba. The feeling of being part of something - something he enjoyed - was a one-time deal only. He would have to just give up on volleyball altogether and look for something else to do. Regardless of how much he liked the sport, the Seijou team wouldn't accept him anymore.

The voices of his teammates slowly fade away. Good. They're going home. (And he’s not upset that they gave up on finding him so fast. He doesn’t care.) Kyoutani is wondering how long he should wait to make sure he won't meet any of them on the way when a voice exclaims:

"There you are!"

He flinches.  Yahaba's voice is soft and gentle - at least most of the time - and it usually wouldn't make anyone jump like that, but right now Kyoutani feels almost as wary of Yahaba as he feels of Oikawa. He wants to run, but unfortunately he's cornered on his own hiding spot. 

"What do you want?" He snarls. 

He expects Yahaba to retreat, as any normal person would. Yahaba is a little shit, so he doesn't. Kyoutani can't say he's surprised, anyway, to see Yahaba crossing his arms and putting on his now familiar bitch face: an eyebrow higher than the other, this really petulant look on his eyes and his lower lip slightly projected in a way that draws Kyoutani's attention for some reason. "What do you mean what do I want? Oikawa-san is paying ramen for the team. What are you hiding here for? Let’s go."

"What do you want me there for?" Kyoutani groans.

Yahaba glares at him like that was the stupidest question he had ever heard. "I said Oikawa-san is paying food for the team. You're supposed to go there and eat. What's so hard to understand about that?"

"What's the point? You're kicking me out of the team anyway!"

Kyoutani didn’t mean to say that. It sounded like he cared about that stupid club that he was never going to be part of. He does care a little, but that doesn’t mean he wants people to know about it. Yahaba, especially. From his teammates, Yahaba was the one who antagonized him the most: the one who kept complaining about Kyoutani’s absences, the one who was always glaring at him during class, the one who actually slammed him against a wall and yelled at him… It was Yahaba. Always Yahaba.

And, besides all of that, his face was annoying. Just looking at him was enough to make Kyoutani all antsy and he didn’t like that feeling.

"What." Yahaba says in a flat tone. He stares at Kyoutani, expressionless. "Were you hit in the head by a ball? What in...” He stammers, but shakes his head to clear his thoughts. “ _What the hell are you talking about_? Why would I... You just... Are you aware that I'm just a regular club member?"

Kyoutani scowls. His ears are heating up as he avoids Yahaba’s glare. Lately it has been difficult to say anything clearly when Yahaba is glaring at him like that (it began after _the puppy incident_ , but Kyoutani doesn’t like to talk about that day in particular.) Now the last thing Kyoutani wants is Yahaba to think he’s afraid of him, so he forces himself to glare back as he barks:

"You're a regular member _now_! But Oikawa is graduating and everybody is talking about you being the next captain!"

Pink dusts Yahaba's cheeks and Kyoutani notices that he's flattered by the idea of being the most obvious choice, but he won't be distracted this easily. He makes an effort to keep his face composed - or at least still angry instead of fazed - and retorts: "Even if they choose me as the next captain, why the hell would I kick you out? You're our best wing spiker!"

Kyoutani falls in baffled silence for a long moment in which Yahaba remains quiet, waiting for a response. He expected Yahaba to say a lot of things. That Kyoutani didn’t deserve to be on the club. That he had no right to complain, since he did so little for the team. He even had an answer ready for it. He was going to say that he didn’t care anyway, that he didn’t _want_ to be in that stupid club, so Yahaba could go have fun with everyone else and forget about him altogether. He’s ready for the fight. He’s not, however, ready for Yahaba calling him the best wing spiker.

He clears his throat before he finally manages to say in a quiet tone: "You said you wouldn't forgive me if I fucked up."

"Oh." Now it's Yahaba's turn to look perplexed. He stands there at loss of words. "I... I did say that and… and I meant it! But you didn't fuck up anything.” Noticing Kyoutani’s incredulous look, he gapes. “I’m serious! I mean... after that, you got it together and you played really well, so... I don't have anything to forgive and stuff. I don’t want you to quit the team. I need you to be our ace next year."

Kyoutani doesn’t know what to say. When Yahaba looks away, his cheeks burning in pink, that annoying feeling on his stomach comes back and one more time he feels like his neck and ears are on fire. He opens and closes his mouth, at loss, until a voice calls from the stairs:

"Hey." Watari is there frowning at the two of them and Kyoutani had never felt so grateful to see him. "What are you two doing? We're going to leave without you."

"We're coming!" Yahaba answers and then glares at Kyoutani. "We are, aren't we? The both of us."

Kyoutani grunts. "Whatever." And he looks away.

The weirdest unsettling feeling blossoms inside his chest. Yahaba said he played well. He said that he wouldn't make Kyoutani quit volleyball, he wanted Kyoutani on the team. He still has the chance to feel that way he felt on the court again. He tries his best to pretend there isn't any weird fuzzy emotion going on beneath his grumpy expression - and he tries even more to ignore the sudden nervousness that followed Yahaba's compliment.  _I need you to be our ace next year._

They meet the rest of the volleyball club outside and Watari's announcement that he found them is followed by mild complaining about Kyoutani getting lost, Oikawa whining and several people bickering. Aside from their coaches, every club member is there. They don't look particularly happy, but they don't look defeated either. Several of them have puffy eyes and red noses as if they had been crying, but they look as energetic and annoying as always. Kyoutani doesn't know what to make out of that.

He shoves his hands inside his pockets and walks a few steps behind the rest of them, already regretting coming along when all of them form their own small groups: the third years together, Watari and Yahaba and then Kindaichi and Kunimi. Kyoutani awkwardly follows them, feeling as out of place as always. Maybe the only moment he can feel welcome among them is when they are on the court. Maybe that will be enough.

He’s uncomfortable, but he goes along nonetheless. He sits along with the rest of the team and he grumbles what he wants to eat. Both seats by his side are quickly occupied by Kunimi on the left… and Yahaba on the right. He finds himself unable to relax after that, even though Kunimi is completely focused on his food and Yahaba is busy talking to Watari. The boys are loud and no one seems bothered by Kyoutani, which feels both relieving and unnerving at the same time. By the time he starts to wish he didn’t come, the third years start to make speeches. Kyoutani’s ramen feels oddly spicy during Iwaizumi’s speech, so much that his eyes sting a little.

When they finally decide to go home, the sun is setting and they walk outside shoving themselves to the side and laughing, it almost feels like they didn’t lose an important game just a few hours ago. Maybe it’s not like Aoba Johsai to stay on the ground, even after loss.

Kyoutani shoves his hands in his pockets wondering how he survived and tries to go away unnoticed. He thinks for a second that he managed it, but then a familiar figure catches up to him.

“I can’t believe you didn’t say a word during all the time we spent there.”

Yahaba. Of course it’s him. For someone who seems to hate Kyoutani, Yahaba sure follows him around a lot.

“What do you want?” Kyoutani groans.

“I’m walking to the station.” Yahaba cocks an eyebrow. “Aren’t you doing the same?”

“Since when? You walk home every day.”

Yahaba is taken aback by surprise. “How do you know that?”

 _Crap_.

“W-we’re in the same class, I see you going home sometimes, okay?” _And there is this one time in which I saw more than I should have, but we don’t mention that._

“Right.” Yahaba stretches his arms. Kyoutani looks away immediately. “Anyway, I’m going to my father’s house for the weekend, so I’m taking the train.”

“Your father’s…?”

“Yeah, my parents are divorced and stuff.” Yahaba shrugs, surprising Kyoutani. How come he’s so casual about this? “Anyway. You’re coming to practice next Monday, right?”

“I…” Kyoutani wants to argue – for no reason in particular, it just feels like the right thing to do. To go against Yahaba. All the time. – but he’s so exhausted after the game and all the time he spent surrounded by people… He doesn’t have any energy left to deal with Yahaba right now. “Right.”

“Good.”

“What, want to make sure I’m going to be there to vote for you?” Okay, maybe he still has a little bit of energy left. Just to tease a little. He grins lightly when he notices Yahaba blushing. "I'd rather vote for Kindaichi."

“Shut up, I want to make sure you’ll actually be a part of the team from now on!”

“Right, because you make me feel so welcome.” Kyoutani mutters under his breath.

“What?”

He curses himself and his apparent newly acquired _inability to shut the fuck up_. Seriously, what the hell? He just wanted to walk home, maybe some time alone to organize the mess that his thoughts are at the moment, but no. That God damned Yahaba shit had to follow him and make him even more uneasy. And talkative. What kind of sorcery did Yahaba use to make Kyoutani, of all people, _talkative_?

“Don’t _what_ me, I know you hate me.”

Why does he sound like he’s complaining? _Why_? He doesn’t _care_ if Yahaba hates him or whatever as long as he’s able to play volleyball. He does not. Why did he even start discussing this subject?

“Wha- I don’t _hate_ you!”

By then, they’re already on the station, waiting for their train. Yahaba stares at Kyoutani, baffled, while Kyoutani can’t help but scoff incredulously at him.

“Hey, I’m serious!” Yahaba insists. “I don’t hate you, okay? I find you annoying, sure, but… Yeah.”

And now it’s awkward. Neither of the boys seems to know what to say now. During painful two minutes, they stay side by side in silence until the train arrives… and both get in. Kyoutani wants to hit his head on the wall until he passes out.

They sit side by side yet another time.

“Listen…” Yahaba starts.

“If you make this situation any more awkward than it already is, I swear I’ll hit you.”

Yahaba lets out a small, nervous laughter.

“Aw, don’t be a dick, Kyoutani, we’re setter and ace, I’m trying to apologize!”

“Apologize?” Kyoutani looks at him. Yahaba’s face is flushed as he stares at his own knees,

“Yeah, I… I think I was a little more irritable towards you than I am to other people, because… Reasons.”

Kyoutani frowns. Is he mocking him? Is he trying to pick up a fight? Is he serious? Man, he can never read that guy.

“Well, that explains everything.”

“I was _jealous_ , okay?” Yahaba groans.

Kyoutani blinks several times, trying to ignore the little somersaults his stomach is doing right now at the word “jealous” out of context. An unwanted thought comes: are they discussing their relationship? Because this weird, sudden conversation sounds a lot like discussing a relationship. Do they even have a relationship at this point?

“What the fuck do you mean by jealous?”

 “Well, you were on the team, right? And you have some awesome skills and you just don’t use them properly, because you’re a piece of work, so I got mad. It felt like you were wasting you potential on purpose, I got annoyed.”

Kyoutani remains silent, perplexed. So that’s the reason behind Yahaba’s jerkiness? Kyoutani had spent the last two years seeing Yahaba being a delightful person to everyone but him, so he was very sure that Yahaba hated him with all his being. All of this time… Yahaba was just annoyed because of the way Kyoutani played?

“But today I saw that you were not being an asshole on purpose…”

"Wow _thank you_." 

“…and you can actually coordinate with the team, so I am…”

“Okay, stop.”

Yahaba gives him a questioning look. Kyoutani does his best to pretend that his heart is not racing. As much as he’s relieved to know that Yahaba doesn’t actually hate him – did he think “relieved”? No, no, he means that is good to solve this mystery. Nothing to be relieved about – he simply doesn’t want this conversation to go on. He’s overwhelmed by everything that happened today and he’s not sure of what he’s going to do if Yahaba starts to be all nice to him.

“Enough of this. It’s weird if you start to try to be polite now. Let’s go back to the awkward silence now, okay?”

Yahaba's eyes widen with Kyoutani’s explanation. Kyoutani wonders if he’ll get mad and they’ll start bickering. Kyoutani is ready for that. He’s made for dealing with unpleasant situations, such as fights and arguments. It’s familiar territory, he knows what to do and it may be a little upsetting, but it’s easy.

He could never be ready, however, for Yahaba to snort and smile widely at him. It was like his whole face was suddenly illuminated by the most candid light. A genuine, sparkly smile.

“Right, let’s go back to the awkward silence, then.” Yahaba actually chuckles softly and Kyoutani is sure that his heart is going to stop.

It’s not that he never saw Yahaba smiling or laughing, it’s just that… He never saw it so up close. He swallows hard and looks away, very aware that their little conversation was as good for his heart as the infamous puppy incident.

True to his word, Yahaba doesn’t say anything else. The atmosphere around them – to Kyoutani, at least – doesn’t feel as uncomfortable as before. It’s almost like Yahaba’s stupid smile had taken a weight off their shoulders and Kyoutani hates him for that. He _hates_ Yahaba.

“This is my stop.” Yahaba announces, getting up. “Don’t get late for practice, Kyoutani.”

“Shut up, captain.”

Yahaba gapes at him before getting off the train. Kyoutani wishes the little frown had erased the memory of that stupid smile from his head. It doesn’t. Kyoutani buries his face on his hands.

“Shit. You’ve got to be kidding me.” He mutters.

He hates Yahaba, he really does. And he started to actually hate him as soon as Yahaba smiled and Kyoutani had to admit to himself that he was crushing hard on that asshole.


	2. Side hugs are misleading and probably illegal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Yahaba is too touchy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's prompt is Jealousy/Touch! I decided to use both because there was no one to stop me. Yay!

The days that follow Spring High are predictable enough: the volleyball club takes a break from practice for a few days. Most third years already stopped coming to school. The teachers are now more annoying than ever and they won’t stop nagging second years about their future.  Kyoutani, particularly, spends most of his free time running away from his teacher. She insists that he must fill those stupid forms about his future as if writing something on a sheet of paper would actually make it reality. If he heard the phrase “Think about your future seriously” one more time, he would seriously snap at the old hag.

Kyoutani avoids thinking about what happened on the train after the game. As a matter of fact he avoids thinking altogether: he helps the old man that owns a small grocery shop next school and carries all the heavy stuff for him. He cleans his room and actually cooks instead of buying take-out food. He walks his dog twice a day. He does his homework (and this is a new technique he had never used before.) He also does his best to not even look at _that guy's_  general direction.

However, Yahaba seems to have stopped with his little habit of glaring at Kyoutani in class. In fact, Yahaba apparently stopped looking at Kyoutani altogether. Kyoutani tells himself that this is good. This is actually helpful. Since he admitted to himself that he has a crush on Yahaba, he also decided that he would end this nonsense. There is no point on crushing on another guy. Especially if this guy is _Yahaba_.  Things obviously will be easy if Yahaba is also embarrassed by their last conversation and won’t go after him again, but fuck, is Kyoutani mad. It’s so annoying that Yahaba is ignoring him when he’s trying to avoid Yahaba.

Crushes are confusing.

Once the club resumes their activities, to no one’s surprise, Yahaba is chosen as the new captain. Kyoutani doesn’t congratulate him, but he does grunt something when Kunimi asks him if he’s unsatisfied with the result (and, in the end, he didn’t actually vote for Kindaichi, but mostly because he was sure the kid would overthink his vote and probably have an attack. And he only voted for Yahaba because... well, he doesn't really know the name of the rest of the second years on the team.)

He’s unsure if his efforts to forget about his unfortunate feelings are paying off. 

On Monday, he shows up for morning practice earlier than usual – not because Yahaba told him to, of course, it’s because he’s excited to see how the volleyball club will be without Oikawa pestering him – and he finds out soon enough that no, one week of hard work wasn’t enough to make him forget about Yahaba. And he realizes it because, once he enters the club room, the first thing he sees is Watari sitting on a bench, his arm wrapped around Yahaba’s shoulder. The first thing he feels upon seeing that is jealous rage. God damn it.

“…was a mistake.” Yahaba is murmuring. “I should never have joined this club. Who was I trying to fool? I’m going to be impeached on my first week.”

“Yahaba, captains don’t get impeachments.” Watari calmly replies.

“Then they might just murder me for being a shitty captain. Who would listen to me, anyway?”

“We voted for you because we obviously will listen to you, Yahaba, calm down.” And then Watari notices Kyoutani standing there. He doesn’t seem fazed by Kyoutani’s scowl. “Oh, good morning, Kyoutani, didn’t see you there. Would you please tell Yahaba that everything will be alright?”

“What’s wrong with him?” Kyoutani asks.

“They want me to replace Oikawa-san. _Oikawa-san_! How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

Kyoutani rolls his eyes and walks up to his locker to put away his backpack and change his clothes. He tells himself that he won’t get involved in this. This is Yahaba’s problem and his plan was to forget Yahaba. To let their relationship be strictly Captain-Ace and nothing else. Also it’s none of his business how Yahaba’s friends comfort him. He’ll let Watari deal with Yahaba. He does not want to use his arm to hold Yahaba’s shoulder like that. Absolutely not.

“Come on, we’re your friends.”

 “Does that mean you’ll endure my incompetence to protect my feelings?”

“That’s not what I said, like, at all.”

He’ll not meddle. He changes silently into his practice clothes and he ignores Yahaba and Watari as if they’re not there. He doesn’t care if Yahaba is freaking out about his first day as a captain, that is totally Yahaba’s problem, not his. He doesn’t care if Watari apparently doesn’t know how to comfort his own best friend. That’s Watari’s issue and he has nothing to do with it.

“Also first years. What do I do next year? I’m going to be their senpai. What do I do with them?”

“Why are you already worrying with next year?”

Kyoutani finishes changing and he’s getting the hell out of there. He’s going to the gym and he’s going to start stretching and warming up without them. Yahaba and Watari should just hug each other and stay in the club room forever, since they’re able to touch each other so casually. Kyoutani is leaving and he’s doing nothing about Yahaba and his crisis because he doesn’t need to know anything about Yahaba. It’s just a crush and he doesn’t have to take care of Yahaba, he really doesn’t. He’s leaving as soon as possible. Watch him. Any second now.

“Watari, I simply don’t know _how to captain_!”

“Well, if you don’t know what to do, you can ask yourself what Oikawa-san would do.” Watari suggests.

Oh. And then there’s that.

“God damn it, you can’t be this stupid!” Kyoutani bark. Both Yahaba and Watari are startled by Kyoutani’s outburst and, in their surprise, they don’t say anything in response. Which suits Kyoutani just fine, since he still has a lot to say: “You’re the captain now. You, not Oikawa. You just have to go there and be yourself, nobody expects a second Oikawa! Actually… Enough of Oikawa.  Jesus fucking Christ…”

Yahaba’s jaw is still dropped, but Watari gives him a dazzling smile so sparkly with gratitude that Kyoutani has to look away. Nonetheless he notes that Watari’s grin, as sincere as it is, doesn’t make his heart go crazy like Yahaba’s smile did. So annoying.

“I… Right. I… can try that.” Yahaba rubs his own nape. “I don’t know if copying Oikawa-san would be useful anyway. What would I do?” And, suddenly, Yahaba changes. His lips twitch into a crooked smile and he lowers his eyelids slightly, making an expression that looks almost… seductive. When he speaks again, his voice sounds ridiculously sweet: “ _Iwa-chan, Kunimi is slacking off, go scold him!_ ”

Watari chuckles, but that’s nothing compared to Kyoutani’s reaction. Yahaba making that stupid face made his heart _do things_ and, before he's able to stop himself, he snorts and lets out a shameful snicker that should not be heard. By anyone. Both Watari and Yahaba stare at him.

“What was that?” Yahaba gapes.

“ _Nothing_.” And Kyoutani quickly slams his locker closed and turns around to walk out of the room.

“Was that… laughter? Was Kyoutani laughing?”

“I was not, _shut up_!”

“You totally were!” To his complete despair, Yahaba gets up from the bench and stops him from going out by holding his wrist. His skin tingles where he touches and it doesn’t help that, when Yahaba speaks again, he does it in that annoying soft tone: “ _Why is that, does Mad Dog-chan think I’m funny_?”

Kyoutani exhales loudly again and this time actual laughter escapes his lips. He covers his mouth with his hand, because what the fuck is wrong with him? It isn’t even that funny, he just get so fucking nervous when Yahaba speaks like that!

“ _Are you listening to this, Watacchi? Mad Dog-chan is laughing at me! His captain! Kids these days, so disrespectful! Not cute at all_!”

Watari is laughing too now, but probably it more at Kyoutani than at Yahaba’s bad impression of Oikawa. Kyoutani is still covering his mouth, in a brave – yet hopeless – attempt to muffle the embarrassing sound. That’s when Yahaba – screw this guy, seriously – decides to let go of Kyoutani’s wrist and instead throw an arm around Kyoutani’s shoulder. Kyoutani thinks he’s going to die. He’s more built, but Yahaba is taller. Just tall enough to comfortably rest his arm around Kyoutani, almost as if they were made to do that.  And it’s this embarrassing thought that makes Kyoutani go on a nervous laughing fit. He doesn’t even try to stop it anymore, he just cackles and hopes that it doesn’t sound as hysterical as he feels.

“ _Are you listening to me, Mad Dog-chan? People that laugh at their beautiful captain are small and petty and should rethink their life choices! Watacchi, Mad Dog-chan is being meeeeean_!”

“Eeeh~” And another voice – the voice Yahaba has been trying to imitate – calls from the entrance. “It seems like you guys are having fun in here.”

“Oooh, poop.” Watari murmurs.

When they turn around, they see Oikawa and Hanamaki by the door. While Hanamaki is covering his mouth with his hand and obviously snickering, Oikawa is wearing his most terrifying smile. The one that is anything but sympathetic. Kyoutani’s first instinct is to jump out of Oikawa’s reach, which he happily does. It’s easier to breathe now that Yahaba isn’t leaning towards him.

“O-Oikawa-san.” Yahaba stutters. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, since it’s my adorable kouhai’s first day as a captain and Makki and I were hanging out nearby, I thought I should come and check on you. I thought you’d be nervous.” Oikawa approaches Yahaba like a predator. Yahaba retreats until his back is touching the lockers. “But it seems like you’re okay, aren’t you, Yahaba-chan? _Having fun, even_.”

“Huh… About that…” Yahaba swallows hard.

Now it’s Oikawa’s turn to loop an arm around Yahaba, but, unlike Watari’s soothing side hug, Oikawa’s grip seems more like a headlock than anything else. Yahaba shrieks when Oikawa starts to roughly ruffle his hair.

“ _Is that what you think of your captain, Yahaba? Is it?_ ”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Yahaba half shouts, squirming to break free, but one does not simply get rid of Oikawa. The guy might look stupid, but he is freakishly strong.

“I think it was a pretty accurate impression.” Hanamaki comments. “Slightly less flamboyant than the original, though.”

“I was just trying to tell them what a good captain sounds like!” Yahaba wails, still struggling to free himself, but Kyoutani then notices a half-grin on his face.

They’re not seriously fighting, of course. Even though it should be obvious, Kyoutani still finds it strange that they can jokingly wrestle just like that. That they can touch each other so casually. That they can invade one another’s personal space without making anyone actually uncomfortable. Kyoutani marvels that this is a regular thing that friends to, because, for him, it’s such a foreign concept. He worked really hard to push people away and he’s been successful at it so far, so he really doesn’t know how it is to be that close to someone.

Except that, just a few seconds ago, Yahaba had touched him just as casually.

Kyoutani groans, happy that the other boys are too busy to notice him on the corner, reading too much into this situation. He simply doesn’t have social skills enough to deal with an unrequited crush. He wishes he had joined another school. He wishes he had got interested in basketball instead of volleyball. He wishes to go back in time and tell his first year self to NOT take that stupid shortcut that lead him to… That scene.

Either way, everything is on Yahaba. Yahaba is at fault for the puppy incident. Yahaba is guilty for side hugging Kyoutani. And Yahaba should also be considered guilty for being Yahaba in general.

“Ok, enough.” Yahaba groans. “Let’s just go already. Oikawa-san, are you staying?”

“Me? Nah, I’d hate to be a backseat captain. Makki and I have big plans for today.”

“It’s a date to make Iwaizumi jealous.” Hanamaki deadpans.

“Makki, you’re just visiting the University with me.”

“And you only called me because your boyfriend is sick, didn’t you? I’m only your backup plan. You player.”

And there is another thing about friends that Kyoutani does not understand. As Oikawa and Hanamaki clarify their plans and say good bye, he wonders how they are able to flirt with each other without being serious about it. How do they even know when someone is actually interested in them or just messing around? How in the heavens were they able to just say things like “We’re going on a date” or “You only call me when your boyfriend is unavailable” without even blushing? Isn’t it inappropriate to joke like that? Kyoutani doesn’t have the slightest idea of how these social rules work.

He misses the time when he was just a brat that didn’t have to worry about that. The time in which he didn’t give a fuck about people side hugging each other and certainly didn’t feel _jealous_ of people’s ability to invade another’s personal space.

“What’s the problem, Kyoutani?” Yahaba asks, raising an eyebrow. “You’re making your murderous expression."

“You’re my problem.” Kyoutani grunts without thinking.

Kyoutani really has to do something about this little bad habit of always telling the truth. For someone that talks so little, he’s seriously having too much trouble with keeping his mouth shut.

“Excuse me?” Yahaba looks shocked. “What did I do?”

Now… He doesn’t have an answer for that, does he? Except that most of Kyoutani’s problems are Yahaba’s fault anyway, so he might as well be honest about this too. He just has to refrain from being too specific.

“You’re being you too much.” He finally grunts.

Yahaba actually gasps and holds a hand on his chest, looking so adorably offended that Kyoutani has to look away to avoid another nervous laughter fit.

“What is that supposed to mean? Did you hear that?” Yahaba looks at Watari and points at Kyoutani. “He’s being a prick for no reason!”

Kyoutani wonders if Yahaba is still trying to do an impression of Oikawa or if he actually has absorbed Oikawa’s whining skills through the two years they were together on the club. Except that Yahaba is slightly less annoying and fake in his way of complaining, of course. No one can be as annoying as Oikawa.

“Yeah, yeah.” Watari yawns. “Dad, stop bullying mom, please. Let’s go to gym already, shall we? The others must be here soon.”

At first, Kyoutani doesn’t know what Watari is talking about. What does he mean by that? It takes him a few seconds to realize that _dad_ means him and _mom_ means Yahaba. Once he becomes aware of this, his ears start burning.

 _Calm down_ , he tells himself. He tries to convince himself that this is no different of Hanamaki’s joke about going on a date with Oikawa. So Watari implied that he and Yahaba are fighting like a married couple, but there is nothing to think about this. Kyoutani is surely is overthinking, since he actually _would_ want him and Yahaba to be a c… a cou… God, this is so embarrassing, he can’t even finish the thought. He takes a deep breath, getting ready to just roll his eyes at Watari’s joke because that’s what it is. A joke. The kind of joke that boys do among themselves and shouldn’t be a big deal.

“ _Watari_!” Yahaba wails.

Kyoutani stares at him, surprised. Yahaba looks completely bewildered, his face glowing in red. He looks almost… Well… Almost as embarrassed as Kyoutani feels. But why would he be embarrassed by a dumb joke like that? Yahaba isn’t as friendless as Kyoutani, he’s very used to interact with other people. He should not be bothered by something little like that unless…

“What’s the problem, captain?” Watari gives him an innocent look that is actually too pure looking to be genuine.

“Ugh. You guys are impossible.” Yahaba stomps his way out of the club room, complaining. “Both of you. I’d expect you guys to support me, but _nooo_ , you have to be two little shits that do…”

But Yahaba’s voice is slowly fading away as he walks towards the gym, so they never find out what they do to be considered two little shits.

“Ah, look at him go.” Watari chuckles. “Hey, Kyoutani.”

And he gently places a hand on Kyoutani’s shoulder. It’s a harmless gesture, but it takes all of Kyoutani’s strength to not jump out of his reach. Is totally different from when Yahaba held him. When Watari – or anyone, per say – touches him casually, Kyoutani wants them to stop immediately and never get any close to him ever again. When Yahaba touches him… Well, Kyoutani needs to run because it actually makes him want to be closer to Yahaba and this is not a good thing.

He’s glad that he was able to not flinch, though, because, as much as he dislikes being touched, Watari is one of the less annoying guys on the club. And he looks so naïve and nice all the time that even Kyoutani has a hard time on being rude to him.

“What?” He scowls, wondering if there is a polite way to tell Watari to not come this close to him. Ever.

“Thank you for what you said.” Watari grins. “I’ve been trying to reason with Yahaba since yesterday, but he wouldn’t listen to me. And it only took you a couple of sentences to make him snap out of it.”

Kyoutani grunts something impossible to understand, trying to swallow the bitter knot on his throat. His first thought was that it didn’t matter that he was able to kick Yahaba’s ass back into gear if it was Watari the one that had permission to hold Yahaba and gently caress his back and… Kyoutani is glad that he finally found the control over his mouth again, but he also wishes he could shut his mind up as well.

“Well, I guess it’s not fair.” Watari grins mischievously and Kyoutani’s eyes widen, scared that the he had just read his shameful thoughts somehow. “Of course you’re the only one he would listen, after all it’s you.”

Kyoutani glares at Watari and he’s honestly trying to not read too much into it, he really is. But what is he supposed to get out of that?

“What do you mean?” He finally asks, because he can’t trust his deductions to be impartial.

“Go figure.” Watari shrugs and smiles. “Let’s go, soon the others will come and practice will start.”

He watches the short libero going out of the room and wonders if Watari realizes the mess he just made out of Kyoutani. 


	3. Parks are great places to flirt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kyoutani starts to believe the Yahaba family is actually a demon clan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's prompt is Pets/Family and I almost died, like, three times writing this. In this chapter things start going downhill. I hope you guys enjoy it.

It’s on a Sunday afternoon that Kyoutani decides that he’s done. He doesn’t want to even _see_ a textbook for the next hundred years. The thing is: while trying to keep his mind busy by studying, he realized that he’s in big trouble. He doesn’t even know what half of the books are talking about. Maybe he should have spent more time paying attention to class. Anyway exams are too close for his liking, so he starts to cram like his life depends on it, because he’s probably going to be kicked out of the volleyball club if he fails.

When did life become so complicated?

Nonetheless he realizes that too much studying can make a man insane. No one can blame him for taking a break. Or for throwing his notebooks across the room to let out the stress. Or even for calling his dog and taking her to a walk in order to relax just a little bit. He refuses to feel guilty for taking a Sunday afternoon off to get some rest. The fact that he had technically rested for the whole year before doesn’t need to be addressed now.

“It’s not that bad, is it, Sachi?” He strokes the dog’s golden fur. She barks in excitement when she sees the leash on his hand. “It’s been a while since I took you for a walk, so it’s okay.”

He decides to take her the park nearby. It’s a nice place, with soft grass, few trees, even fewer benches and a lot of balls to watch out for. A lot of people take their dogs there on Sundays and Kyoutani knows she will be more than happy to have a couple of more dogs to play with. He doesn’t like it when it’s crowded, but Sachi is way more sociable than her owner and she always gets excited about making new dog friends – and often Kyoutani lets her off her leash, so she can run around happily without dog owners trying to small talk to him.

Fortunately for him, the weather is getting chilly and thus there aren’t many people around, but still enough dogs for Sachi to pounce enthusiastically once she sees them

“Okay, okay.” Kyoutani mutters crouching down to let her off the leash. “You can go.”

With an excited bark, Sachi launches herself running towards other dogs. Kyoutani can’t help but smile softly at the view. She’s, by far, his best friend and it makes him really warm inside to see her being this happy. He spends a few seconds wondering if he should call her over to play fetch or something, but in the end he decides it’s best to let her have a little fun by herself first. Kyoutani walks towards a tree and sits beneath its shadow, trying to not feel guilty about the pile of unread textbooks he left back at home.

That’s when he hears a little bark by his side. It’s not unusual for the dogs to approach him. Unlike people, dogs are always welcome near Kyoutani, and they seem to know it. (And they’re also attracted by the smell of dog cookies he always carries around in his pocket.) He’s already reaching for the cookies to give some away when his eyes find a three-legged beagle.

“Holy crap, it’s you!” Kyoutani half-shouts, because he recognizes it. It’s the same dog from the puppy incident! It looks a lot healthier than it did when Kyoutani first saw it and it has grown on the past year, but just like doesn’t have a leg and one small part of its ear is missing. It’s definitely the same dog.

“Saburo!” A high-pitched voice calls out.

Kyoutani lifts his gaze and all he's able to say is: “What the fuck.”

He finds himself looking at a little girl that he had never seen before, but that looks ridiculously familiar. She has soft looking hair divided in two pig tails in a shade that he definitely knows. She has a pair of big brown eyes that Kyoutani knows too well. There is something about her whole cute little face that looks adorable, but also unafraid of everything. It must be the way she confidently runs towards Kyoutani and the three legged beagle. Usually small kids run to their moms when they see Kyoutani. Some of them start crying, even. This one can’t be older than 7 and she just runs to him, holds the dog between her tiny arms, looks Kyoutani straight in the eyes and says:

“Oooh, you said a bad word!”

 _What is this, a Yahaba for ants?_ Because that's what the little girl is. From the top of her head to the tips of her pink shoes, she looks exactly like an tiny, female version of Yahaba.

It takes him a few moments to remember you’re not supposed to swear in front of children.

“Huh…”

“It’s okay, I’m not gonna tell anyone.” She singsongs, crouching down next to him. “Sometimes my brother says that word too, but I pretend I can’t hear so mom won’t yell at him.”

“Huh… Hm.” Kyoutani mutters.

He doesn’t quite know how to deal with children, let alone children that look exactly like Yahaba. Luckily for him, Sachi decides that this is the appropriate time to come back running and barking, saving him from the need to think about an actual response. Unfortunately, rather than losing interest and running away, the little Yahaba carefully puts her dog back on the ground and smiles widely to Sachi.

“Is this your dog?” She asks excitedly. “What’s his name? Can I pet him?”

“It’s a she.” Kyoutani automatically corrects.

“Oh, sorry. But what’s her name?”

“Sachi.”

“Hello, Sachi!” Little Yahaba decides she doesn’t want to wait for Kyoutani’s permission and walks up to the dog to pet her. “My name is Akemi and this is Saburo!”

And there is nothing else to do other than stare in baffled silence as Sachi happily lets the little girl rub her belly. Kyoutani tries his best to think of something sociably acceptable to do in this kind of situation, but he doesn’t find such a file in his brain. It’s not that kids never approached Sachi and tried to play with her – Sachi is a big dog, but she’s absurdly friendly looking and she loves to be fussed over – but it is the first time that a kid tries to befriend his dog when he’s close enough to be part of the interaction.

Unlike Kyoutani, Saburo apparently knows how to join and he barks, running to sniff Sachi and be sniffed back as Akemi laughs. And also unlike Kyoutani, the three of them seem to have a great time. He’s just trying to think of a way to walk away.

“Are you by yourself?” He finally asks, thinking that a girl that age – and especially a girl that goes around talking to strangers as scary as Kyoutani without any concern – shouldn’t be allowed to run around alone with a tiny dog that doesn’t even have all four limbs.

“I’m not.” Akemi says confidently. “I’m with Saburo and Sachi and you.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Kyoutani gapes, impatient. The girl doesn’t seem impressed by his scowl, but he tries to make his face stay neutral again nonetheless. He’s very aware that he has a bad case of resting angry face, and he’s very bothered by it right now, regardless of how unfazed the girl is. “Where are your parents?”

“Mama is home with her boyfriend. Papa is at _his_ home working.”

“Right. Then you came here by yourself?”

“Did not!” She pouts. “I’m a good girl, I don’t go out alone.”

“Saburo doesn’t count.”

“I _know_.” And the little imp has the audacity to look annoyed, as if Kyoutani is the one being a pain. “I came here with my brother.”

“Okay. Where’s your brother, then?”

“He went to buy water, because I was thirsty and he told me to stay with Saburo while he… he… Oh, boy.” She looks around. “Saburo went running and I ran after him… Oh, no…”

She frowns and, for the first time, she looks distressed. With a wave of panic flooding his chest, Kyoutani realizes she’s about to cry. He’s fairly sure that, if a little girl starts crying by his side, somebody will certainly call the police.

“No, no, no, don’t cry!” He thoughtlessly reaches for her, but his hands stops midway, unsure of what to do. Does he pet her hair? Holds her shoulders and shakes her? What if he scares her? “Don’t cry, it’s okay!”

“I’m not crying!” And her voice is already all bubbly. “I’m a grown lady and ladies don’t c-cry!”

“We’re gonna find your brother, okay? You don’t need to be like that!” Kyoutani curses himself, because he sounds more like he’s scolding the brat rather than comforting her.

“But he’s going to be mad because I didn’t stay where he told me to!” She stomps a little foot.

“Then I’m going to fight him until he forgives you.”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Kyoutani wants to throw himself out of a window. Why, oh _why_ , would he think that promising to fight this seven-year old’s brother would be comforting? Why did he even open his mouth? Is this divine punishment? Is it punishment for procrastinating with his dog when he’s supposed to be studying? This is probably the time in which the girl starts crying so loud that somebody will for sure call the police and Kyoutani is going to be arrested for child abuse. He wonders if there is a volleyball team in prison. Well, at least people probably don’t have to take exams there.

That’s when the girl stops crying. Instead she slaps Kyoutani in the shoulder (!!!!) and rolls her eyes (????)

“Fighting people is no good! You’re gonna make Sachi cry, you dummy!” He sighs heavily, as if _Kyoutani_ is a trouble child that she has to take care of. _What is going on???_ “Besides you can’t fight my big brother. He’s really tall and he’s a member of a sport club. Big brother is really strong.”

Kyoutani stops to think for a second. A three legged beagle that looks a lot like the beagle he saw last year on the puppy incident. A little girl that is a small copy of Yahaba, from the cute looks to the nasty cocky attitude. A big brother that is part of a sport club. Kyoutani connects the dots at the same time that they hear:

“ _Akemi_!” It was almost as if he was waiting for his cue.  Yahaba comes running at them, a bottle of water on his hand, his face flushed bright red. “Oh my God, where were you?”

“Nii-chan!” Akemi throws herself into his arms as soon as he’s on reach (Kyoutani refuses the embarrassing thought that he’s a little envious of her. He refuses.) and Yahaba easily lifts the little girl on his arms. “Sorry! Saburo ran away and I ran after him.”

“You should have called me!” Yahaba groans. “I almost had a heart attack when I turned around and the two of you were gone and… and… Kyoutani?”

 _Crap_. He got distracted by (the original) Yahaba’s sudden arrival and missed his cue to grab Sachi and leave without being seen.

“Huh… Hi.”

_Why does he have to be so awkward every damn time he meets this asshole?_

“Nii-chan, do you know him? That is Sachi and he’s her owner!”

“Did you talk to him?” Yahaba frowns. “Akemi, what did I say about talking to strangers?”

“That… is no good... I’m sorry, nii-chan.”

“Alright, we’re going home. You’ve had enough adventures for a day.”

“What? No! I didn’t play properly with Saburo yet! And I want to play with Sachi too! Please, nii-chan, I’m gonna be a good girl now! Please!”

She pouts and even Kyoutani has the urge to give her whatever she wants. He doesn’t take himself for someone that has a weakness for cute things, but that girl… That child is dangerous and she must be feared. He thanks all the deities that Yahaba isn’t the type that pouts to have his way, because if he was, Kyoutani would be doomed.

“Fine!” Yahaba puts the girl on the floor again. “But only a little, okay? And don’t get out of my sight again.”

“Yay! Thanks, onii-chan!” She hugs him one more time and then runs to Kyoutani. “Is it okay if I take Sachi to play with me and Saburo?”

 _As if I could say no to those big, sparkly eyes. You tiny demoness._ “Uh… Ok.”

She smiles in delight as she takes a ball from the pocket on her dress and waves at the two dogs, calling them by their names. Akemi runs and both dogs follow her with enthusiasm. Yahaba sighs.

“Ah, man. Sorry for that, Kyoutani. That kid is too friendly. Thank God she only talked to you, not to some creeper.”

Kyoutani hums in response and keeps his stare fixed on Akemi and the dogs, partially because he wants to make sure none of them will run off again, but mostly because avoiding to look at Yahaba has become a habit.

“So… huh…” At that, he lifts his eyes, curiously. Yahaba may not be the most confident guy on the team like Oikawa was, but he doesn’t often have problems with words. Kyoutani wonders why he is hesitating like that. “Mind if I sit there?” Yahaba points at a spot on the ground by Kyoutani’s side.

Kyoutani’s heart skips a beat. He doesn’t want to say yes, because having Yahaba around makes him dumb, but he doesn’t want to say no because he does want Yahaba around, so he just shrugs. (Un)fortunately, Yahaba takes his gesture for a yes and sits by his side.

“I don’t want to spoil her, but she lives with dad and I don’t get to hang out with her so much, so I end up wrapped around her little finger.” Yahaba sighs. “Did she bother you?”

Kyoutani shrugs again. “She’s one weird kid. It’s like your clone or something.”

Saying someone’s little sister is a weird kid probably isn’t the smoothest pick-up line, but miraculously Yahaba doesn’t get offended. Instead, he laughs.

“Yeah, a little. But she’s a nice girl too, so there’s that.” Yahaba makes a brief pause. “So, that dog is yours?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s cute.”

He grunts something in response and they stay in silence for a while. The silence itself doesn’t bother Kyoutani, but the situation does. He is not good at small talking – or at talking in general – and he doesn’t know what to say. What if he says something inappropriate? What if he says something stupid? He doesn’t have anything to say, so he’d rather stay quiet, but staying in silence is no good either. Yahaba must be uncomfortable. He must want Kyoutani to say something. God, hanging out with people is too much work.

“Man, sure is good to take a break from studying.” Yahaba stretches his arms. “I can’t wait for the break.”

Kyoutani lets out a surprised noise. Exams. He was so busy being stressed by Akemi and then by Yahaba that he had forgotten about the exams and that he was supposed to be studying.

“What was that?” Yahaba gapes at him. “You’re taking a break too, aren’t you?”

“I… am. Sure.”

“Kyoutani. Holy cannoli, Kyoutani, tell me that you’ve been studying.”

“Shut up! I have been studying!” A brief pause. “… for the past weeks.”

“Oh my God!” Yahaba shouts. “How are your grades? Please tell me that they’re good enough for you to be approved.”

“Huh…”

Yahaba buries his face on his hands. “Oh my God, Kyoutani! Kyoutani, no! You can’t have bad grades; they’ll ban you from the club!”

“I _know_ , okay? That’s why I’ve been studying! But that crap is useless! _The hell do I need trigonometry_?” Kyoutani throws his hands in the air in frustration and Yahaba glares at him again.

“To get good grades and stay on the club, holy cow, I can’t believe we’re having this conversation!”

“ _Shut up_ , how good are _your_ grades?”

“ _You_ shut up! My grades are perfectly fine!”

Well, this is more an argument than an actual conversation, but that’s just their usual bickering. And it’s less unnerving than the awkward silence. Is this it? Kyoutani’s first love is doomed to be a guy with whom his relationship consists in fights? Maybe “Shut up” will be their always.

“Okay, how bad is it? Are you failing any subjects?” Kyoutani looks away. Yahaba swallows. “How many subjects are you failing?”

“What would you say if I told you that I’m not failing physical education?”

“…I’m going to cry. We’re doomed. Most of the team graduated and now we don’t even have an ace. And I promised Oikawa-san that I would take revenge on Kageyama.”

“I… I will do something about it, okay? I said I’ve been studying lately and everything.”

“That’s not enough.” Yahaba shakes his head. “I’m taking the wheel. I’m going to tutor you from tomorrow on. Meet me on the library after class and I’m going to shove knowledge down your throat.”

Kyoutani scoffs. “You? Are those captain’s orders?”

“Yes, me, and those are my orders as your captain that is not failing every damn subject, you irresponsible lettuce.”

“Did you _seriously_ just call me an irresponsible lettuce?”

Yahaba grabs a handful of grass and throws at Kyoutani’s face. Kyoutani shoves him to the side. He’s so busy bantering that he doesn’t even notice how playful is their fight. The kind of fight that happens between close friends. He doesn’t even overthink the fact that Yahaba is going to tutor him after class.  Kyoutani doesn’t immediately notice that being by Yahaba’s side can be unnerving when he’s being wary of his presence, but it can be very comfortable when he allows himself to relax.

Kyoutani curses under his breath when a chilly breeze sweeps through the park and not only makes them shiver but also leaves his eye stinging.

“What now?” Yahaba asks.

“Something in my eye.” He grunts, rubbing it with the back of his hand.

“Don’t do that, you’re going to hurt yourself, let me see.” With mild complaining, Kyoutani lets him. Yahaba cups his face with one hand. “Now open your eye.”

“I’m trying, but it hurts, damn it!”

“Don’t be a baby, just open it and I’ll blow whatever is in it.”

And they bicker some more. Kyoutani squirms under Yahaba’s hands until he is finally able to open his eye… That’s when he notices how close they are. As he tried to see better Kyoutani’s eye, Yahaba leaned in so much that now there are mere inches between their faces… between their mouths. Both boys fall silent. Kyoutani’s attention is inevitably drawn to Yahaba’s lips. Is this a test to his resistance? Because he’s going to give in really easily. He had dreamed about this before. About the texture of Yahaba’s lips against his. About the sweet taste of his kiss. Now Yahaba’s beautiful face is just one breath away and… Is he imagination or Yahaba just caressed his cheek with his thumb?

This is it. He’s not thinking straight. He’s leaning forward and…

“Onii-chan! Saburo pooped!”

_God damn it, Saburo._

Kyoutani and Yahaba get away from each other as if they got burned just on time to see Akemi running to them franticly. Sachi follows her closely and even Saburo does the best he can to keep their pace.

“Right! Saburo! I’m going to pick it up.” Yahaba announces with his voice higher than usual as he looks for something in his pockets.

“He pooped over there!” Akemi sighs, pointing, and then she looks at Kyoutani. “Hey, are you _the_ Kyoutani from nii-chan’s team?”

Kyoutani blinks. Did Yahaba talk about him at home?

“I guess yes…?”

“I heard nii-chan once saying to Watari-kun that you’re a pain in the butt, but you’re very cute. I don’t think you’re cute, though.”

“ _AAAH_!” Yahaba screams, startling all of them. “That’s it! We’re going home, Akemi. Pick Saburo, I pick the poop and we’re going home! See you at school and stuff, Kyoutani.”

“Not yet, onii-chan!” Akemi wails, but Yahaba is already power walking towards the infamous poop spot. She bents down to grab Saburo and carry him on her arms before running to catch up with her brother yelling: “We didn’t even have ice cream yet!”

Kyoutani watches them go, mesmerized, as he tries to digest all the information that was suddenly thrown at him. Because if he isn’t hallucinating, he was about to kiss Yahaba… But Yahaba was about to kiss him as well. They would have kissed if Akemi didn’t have interrupted them. He, Kentarou Kyoutani, was almost kissed by his crush, Shigeru Yahaba. His crush that, apparently, had once told his best friend that he thinks Kyoutani is cute. _(?????)_

It’s a good thing that Sachi already knows the way home, because he sure doesn’t pay attention to where he’s going. He’s the one holding the leash, but she is the one guiding him.

As he takes of his shoes at the entrance, he realizes that his shameful dreams from the last weeks – daydreams that he had tried with all his might to shut down – are not that impossible anymore. What if (just if) he actually gets to ask Yahaba out?

“Kentarou? What are you doing?”

His father’s voice snaps him awake, making him realize that he’s been staring at the wall for almost five minutes since he arrived home. His ears burn upon the realization that he’s acting like a lovestruck fool. He grunts something in response and, fortunately, his father doesn’t ask any further questions.

“If you’re not doing anything, come and help me with dinner.”

He follows his father to the kitchen. He may do as his father says and wash his hands to take care of the rice, but his mind is far, far away from dinner.

The possibility of Yahaba liking him back had sent him in a weird kind of inner frenzy. What should he do next? Should he confess? No. God knows that words aren’t his friends. And there is still a chance that he is, in fact, hallucinating about the whole almost kiss thing. Should he flirt? Well, that’s another thing he doesn’t know how to. He thinks that he should ask someone for advice, but who? Sachi is literally his only friend outside of the volleyball club.

Kyoutani stops in the middle of reaching for the rice cooker. Since when he started to think about the volleyball club as his friends? It’s true that lately Watari has been especially nice and Kunimi had asked him to practice together a few times, but still…

“Kentarou, what’s with you today?” His father frowns.

Suddenly, Kyoutani has a crazy idea. What if he asked his father for advice? They don’t talk too much and they certainly don’t have the best relationship as a family, but on this kind of situation, it’s normal to ask your parents for help, isn’t it?

“I was wondering if… Huh… How did you ask mom out?”

Kyoutani’s father chokes on his own spit. Kyoutani doesn’t blame him. His mother died when he was just a baby and they don’t talk much about her.

“Where did that come from?”

“No, it’s just… There is this person I like.” God, he regrets this already. This is so embarrassing that he can’t even look his father in the face.

“Oh.” His father scratches his own nape awkwardly. “Ooh. Okay, huh… What’s her name?”

Kyoutani retreats. _Oh_. In his excitement about his crush not being as impossible as he thought it was, he for a second forgot that you’re not supposed to like people of the same sex. How would his father react? Even though this is his father, he can be very unpredictable. What should he do now?

“N-no, it’s actually… a boy from the club and…”

He laments the words as soon as they leave his lips. God damn it, why didn’t he lie? Why? But again his father is an odd man. Maybe he won’t think of this as a big deal? Maybe it will be okay.

And then, sharp like a whip that shatters all of Kyoutani's hopes, the older man snarls:

“ _What_?”

Kyoutani then realizes that this is the biggest trouble his big mouth had ever got himself into.


	4. Small city people spread gossip for a living

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kyoutani needs help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's prompt is Team! I went quite freely on this one and I wrote half of this chapter on my phone, but there is a lot of Watari this time so I'm satisfied.

Unsure of what he should do next, Kyoutani glares at the mirror of the public bathroom. A grumpy teenager with puffy eyes glares back. There are dark circles beneath his eyes - darker than then naturally are, at least - and he looks more murderous than usual. Not that someone can blame him for it after the hell of a night he had just been through. With a sigh, he washes his face in a frivolous attempt to make his expression a little better. It doesn’t work, but at least he feels a little more awaken.

 Sachi barks and he frowns at her. “I  _know_.” He tells her, even though he really doesn’t know anything. “I’ll figure something out, okay?”

He opens his backpack hoping that it will give him an idea. The only thing he sees is his uniform over a mess of clothes roughly shoved inside. Oh well, he should  _probably_  go to school. Nobody ever told him what to do in this kind of situation, so he decides to follow his routine normally in hope that he’ll eventually think of a solution. With that depressing thought, he enters one of the bathroom stalls to change into his uniform. It’s all wrinkled, but at this point he doesn’t care that much. His appearance can’t get any worse anyway.

As he leaves the bathroom, he sees that the metro station is now overflowing with people going to work and school and taking care of their own lives. No one pays attention to the shaggy looking teenager and his dog.

Kyoutani worries about Sachi and what he should do about her while he’s at school. He’s almost giving up on going to class when he remembers that there is a park near Aoba Johsai that might be useful. Sachi should be fine if he leaves her on the playground. Since it’s school time, there won’t be any kids around to mess with her. When they get there, Kyoutani stops walking and turns to her.

“I need you to stay. Stay. I’ll come pick you up later. Okay? Stay, Sachi.”

She sits down obediently and doesn’t move even when Kyoutani turns his back to her and walks towards the school. He feels awful for leaving her behind even though it’s just for a couple of hours. Having her by his side was his only comfort through the night and, now that he’s alone, he feels even worse than last night when his father told him to… Oh, well. He looks back once and sees that Sachi is not worried at all and already made herself comfortable by lying down beneath the shadow of the playground slide. Kyoutani envies her a little for being so carefree.

To spend the night on a metro station bench had him sleepless until four in the morning, but didn’t stop him from oversleeping until he was almost late for the first class of the day. The bell rings as he crosses the school gates making him curse under his breath.

As soon as Kyoutani walks into the classroom, he realizes that something is off. Many heads turn towards his direction and the chattering dies. As much as he never made any efforts to be friendly to his classmates, he usually manages to go ignored through the day. He then notices that a girl he saw last night when he left home is sitting on the corner and also staring at him.

Perfect. Just perfect. He expected rumors to be spread. He was very sure that the whole neighborhood heard as he and his father yelled at each other last night and he even saw that damn girl staring at him as he left with nothing but a stuffed backpack, but this is ridiculous. How the heck did they spread the news so fast that it took only one night for the whole class be aware of it?  He does his best to ignore everyone else as he walks to his spot, but that’s a hard thing to do when you feel everybody’s eyes following every move you make.

The heavy silence lasts a few seconds until the door is slid open again and Yahaba rushes into the classroom, breathless.

“Good morning…!” He huffs to no one else in particular, because Yahaba is one ridiculous person that talk to every classmate. “God, I thought I was going to be late.”

Some people mutter their “good morning, Yahaba-kun” in return, but it sounds awkward. Yahaba seems to grasp the classroom atmosphere quickly enough and he frowns, confused, as he takes his sit by Kyoutani’s side.

“What happened here?” Yahaba asks. “And why do you look like a homeless person?”

 _Because I am a homeless person,_  Kyoutani thinks but fortunately enough he doesn’t have to say that since the teacher walks into the room on this very moment.

He shouldn’t have come to school and only now he realizes his mistake. He knows that he only came because he was desperately trying to cling to the last piece of his routine that was still in place, but now he realizes that even school was taken away from him. He should have stayed in the park with Sachi or started to look for something like a job or a place to live. He would have, if he knew that every fucking one already knew about him. And all because he couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut. He had never felt more stupid.

The classes of that day take what it feels like centuries and every whisper he hears, every little sound of pieces of paper being exchanged, feels like it’s all about him. Kyoutani is exposed and there is nothing he can do about it. He can't fight the whole school to make them shut up and take care of their own business.

Or else, he  _can_ , but he really  _shouldn’t_.

It’s close to lunch time when he hears Yahaba tapping something on his phone followed by a soft gasp. Great, now somebody told Yahaba. At this point, Kyoutani is almost sure that he imagined the whole almost kiss thing. Yahaba was probably only trying to blow the dirt of his eye and he was the one trying to kiss him. If Akemi hadn't interrupted them, he would probably have kissed Yahaba and Yahaba would freak out and tell him to stay the hell away from him. That's when he decides that he’s had enough. As soon as the teacher announces lunch break and leaves, he throws his backpack on his shoulder and gets up to get out of there. He hears Yahaba calling out his name, be he doesn’t stop.

Most students are leaving their classrooms to go have lunch somewhere else and some of them stare at Kyoutani and whisper to each other. If they are commenting the fact that Kyoutani is obviously leaving the school early or if they know about his secret somehow, he doesn't know and he doesn't care (he doesn't) so he just quickens his pace. He's tired, upset, his back ache and all that he wants is to get his dog and go somewhere far, far away from Miyagi. This day can't get any worse anyway.

Except that, of course, fate has to prove him wrong. He hears the alarming sound of something ripping. Kyoutani stops walking as he sees his things falling out of his backpack. He manages to not scream in frustration that his old backpack decided that now was a good time to die - partially because it was his fault for stuffing so much stuff inside it - but he seriously considers just throwing everything on the ground and leaving at that. Considering that the backpack and it's content it's all that he owns now, he wisely decides to crouch down and pick up his stuff. He tells himself that this is the worst it gets - he really has to stop doing that - when he hears some voices nearby.

"...and you apparently his dad found out and kicked him out."

"Eeeh, no way! That blond delinquent guy? Seriously? But he looks so manly!"

"And the guys from the volleyball club have been _changing_ in front of him all of this time! It's so creepy!"

And, just like that, Kyoutani sees red. He jolts up and straightens his back to look taller, pleased to see the two girls go pale upon seeing him. One of them is the girl from his class - and he's really starting to hate this girl and her ability to spread gossip like a wide fire.

"Am I creepy, huh?" He hisses and they flinch at the same time. "What  _else_?"

They look genuinely scared and, for the first time, he's not sorry for it. He usually only want people to get out of his way; this is the first time he wants to actually frighten someone, to  _hurt_  them. Because what do these _stupid_ girls know? How dare them to talk so lightly about the volleyball club, the only fucking thing he enjoys and that he had just lost because of stupidity? He wants them to feel at least half as bad as he does, that's why he doesn't back off. He gapes at them and he would probably yell at them too if he hadn't felt a now familiar weigh of an arm being thrown around his shoulders.

"What is this, Kyoutani? You're not picking up a fight with some girls, are you?"

 _Yahaba_. Kyoutani thinks now his heart is going to stop for real

"Yahaba-kun!" One of the girls gasps, her cheeks flushing pink.

"Moriyama-san." Yahaba retorts pleasantly. "Don't tell me that you guys are the ones picking a fight with Kyoutani, are you?"

"Y-Yahaba-kun! Kyoutani-kun was... haven't you heard the rumors?"

Yahaba smiles at her with his regular polite expression, but when he speaks again his tone is ice cold: "I have. Don't you think its pitiful that people waste time talking about other people's lives instead of taking care of their own?"

The two girls let out indignant gasps at the same time, before turning on their heels and hurriedly walking away. Kyoutani is fairly sure that they are going to trash-talk Yahaba just as badly. Kyoutani shoves Yahaba's arm away.

"What are _you doing_?"

"Stopping you from getting in trouble for scaring the shit out of some dumb girls." Yababa pouts and it's ridiculous that even in this situation it makes Kyoutani's heart flutter. "They're not worth it."

"More important than that." Another voice calls out and Kyoutani jumps, startled, when he notices that Watari is also there. "Are you okay?"

Kyoutani looks away. He can't deal with Watari's genuine concern right now or with Yahaba's worried expression. Both of then appear to be honestly distressed on his behalf and he doesn't know for sure if this makes him feel better or worse. A part of him wants to tell then to go away. It's a stupid urge and he knows it, but at this point he wouldn't bear having another rug pulled from beneath his feet, so he doesn't want to get his hopes up believing that Watari and Yahaba are going to be by his side through this. He had minimum social interaction today, and yet he's so _tired_ of people already that he honestly just wants to be alone. He doesn't think he's asking for much.

"What do you guys _want_?" He groans.

"Well, we heard rumors about you and you were obviously going home, so we thought we should check you out." Watari mutters.

"Yeah? What did you hear, then?" He barks, defiant.

"It doesn't matter." Yahaba replies calmly and Watari nods. The two of them are annoyingly forgiving about Kyoutani's obvious attempts to push them away. "We want to know what happened to you."

He glares at them for the longest time, but even Kyoutani doesn't have strength enough to keep his bravado for much longer. Especially since he haven't eaten anything since yesterday's lunch. He groans, defeated, and admits: "Yesterday I told my old man that I... that I like boys, ok? Then he yelled at me to stop and I told him to piss off and he told me to get the hell out of his house. And it seems like that bitch from our class is my neighbor and heard everything, so now everyone knows. Happy?"

He gapes at them, still half expecting them to leave. Watari wears a horrified expression,  but Yahaba still looks calm. There is something in his eyes, but it's impossible to read. Is it anger? Disgust? Concern? Kyoutani always thought that Yahaba was a pretty straight-forward guy, but now he finally understands something he had heard Oikawa saying once. That Yahaba is the most diplomatic member of the team, since he's the better at hiding unpleasant emotions and keeping his cool under difficult situations. Kyoutani knows for sure that Yahaba is affected in some way by his story, but he's keeping his emotions under control for Kyoutani's sake. More than any worried look, it's that what comforts him.

"Where did you sleep then?" Watari asks.

"The metro station. On... huh... on a bench."

"This... this is awful!" Watari gasps. "Why didn't you come to one of our houses or something?"

Kyoutani is taken aback by Watari's suggestion, because it make it sound like going to one of them for help should be the obvious answer. As if it was already implied that Yahaba and Watari were more than willing to help him in that sort of situation. Instead of pointing out that _no, it wasn't, when did they establish that?_ he stammers:

"I... I don't even know where you live."

"Right." Watari sighs. "What will we do?"

We. Not "what will you do?" but "what will _we_ do?" Watari includes himself and Yahaba in the process of _doing something about this_ , as if Kyoutani's problem is their problem.

"Okay, lets work this out." Yahaba is using his captain voice now. The one he uses when he's giving instructions before practice. "Who pays for your school, Kyoutani?"

"No... no one." He stumbles on words. "I have a sports scholarship."

"That makes things easier!" Watari grins. "Then you can just move in with me, Kyoutani."

"That's a great idea!"

That is enough to shake Kyoutani off his baffled state. 

"Wait, _wait_!! I can't just... move in with you!"

"Why not?" Yahaba gapes.

"It's okay, Kyoutani. I live by myself and the place is sort of small, but it's nice and..."

"That's not the problem! I... I have Sachi and... and..."

"Sachi?"

"His dog. A Labrador."

"Oh. Well, it’s going to be a little crowded, but animals are allowed there."

"Watari!" Kyoutani snaps. "You're inviting me to live in your house. To live there. With you."

"Well, yeah." Watari deadpans. "I've always wanted a roommate anyway."

_How can he be so casual about it?_

"I... I can't even get a job because of the scholarship. I'd have to quit school and..."

"Kyoutani." Yahaba scowls. He's using his captain voice again. "We're your teammates and your friends. We're not letting you become homeless. If it bothers you so much, make it temporary. You can live with Watari until you figure something out. Okay? Besides you're our ace and we need you. We can't have you on the team if you drop the school, right? Can you stop being stubborn just today? Please?"

Kyoutani can't do anything but stare at them, perplexed, until Watari nudges him on the side. He ends up muttering a soft "Okay." That launches Yahaba and Watari into endless chattering about what they have to do. Watari comments he doesn't have a spare futon or a couch, so Yahaba suggests they pick one from his house on the way home. Yahaba asks when did Kyoutani eat for the last time and Watari gets so scandalized with the answer that he buys Kyoutani a yakisoba bread. They ask where Sachi is and Yahaba seems worried about the fact that she's all alone on the park. Lunch break goes on a blur and, when he realizes, he's already being dragged back to class by Yahaba.

People are staring, but Kyoutani now feels oddly numb. If the morning classes lasted forever, the afternoon classes go by so absurdly fast that it feels like only a few seconds had passed when Yahaba nudges him announcing that it's time for practice.

 _Practice._ That's what he's feared since he realized that people at school know about him. Because he doesn't care about his obnoxious classmates, but the club members are important. Kyoutani had finally found a way to play by their side last year. What if he had ruined everything already?

But apparently he didn't. That or the volleyball club members are completely misinformed when it comes to gossip. Nobody gives him a second look when he enters the club room. During practice, Kunimi approaches him and asks him to spike for Kindaichi so he'll practice his blocks (Kindaichi himself didn't dare to ask, but that's what he usually does.) One of the other second years challenges him to see which one of the can do more drills (Kyoutani is winning when the coach notices and scolds them.) Yahaba yells at him for serving a ball right on one of the first years's face (it's not practice if Yahaba doesn't yell at him at least once.) And, when he notices, the coaches are telling them to clean up and leave.

After all that exercise, he feels absurdly less tense than before. His home was taken from him. His peaceful, discrete presence in class is also lost. He now has to endure weirded out glares in the hallways. But this - the sport he's learned to love - is still the same. Satisfying, rewarding and fun. The volleyball club didn't change. He marvels the fact that at least that is the same as Yahaba apologizes to everyone because he, Watari and Kyoutani are leaving without helping with cleaning. There's only mild complaining about power abuse until Yahaba promises to compensate later.

It takes him a while to understand that they're leaving earlier because they have to take care of Kyoutani's house situation.

It doesn't feel real as they stop by the park to pick up Sachi. (She had been waiting for them obediently and she seems disappointed that Kyoutani didn't bring any snacks for her, but she happily follows them regardless.) He's so out of it that he doesn't even pays attention that they walked past the alley in which the puppy incident had taken place on the way to Yahaba's house. They wait for Yahaba outside while he goes in and picks up a spare futon (he guarantees that they have so many of those in there that it's no big deal to lend one of two or even to give them away and he also brings dog cookies for Sachi.) Watari lives in a small apartment complex just a few blocks away. (Which somehow explains why he and Yahaba are so close.)

Watari's place is small, as he said, and decorated in traditional Japanese style: just one large room that can be fully seem from the entrance and that is used as living room, bedroom and study room, a small kitchen on the left and a even smaller bathroom on the right. There isn't a lot of furniture. There is a bed on he corner, a shelf with school books, a small TV next the wall, an old laptop that rests on a kotatsu and a small sliding door wardrobe in which Watari probably keeps his stuff.

"We can use some cushions to make a bed for Sachi-chan." Watari comments happily. "I can't cook, so we only have cup noodles for dinner. Also do you want to take a bath? Wait, stupid question. Of course you do. I'm going to prepare it, just a second."

Rambling to himself, Watari walks to the bathroom. Meanwhile Yahaba makes himself comfortable sitting on the bed and Sachi happily jumps on his lap, letting him scratch her ears. Kyoutani awkwardly stands in the middle of the room looking around.

“You can sit down, you know.” Yahaba pats on the spot by his side on the bed. “You live here now.”

That’s right. He lives here now. He mechanically does as Yahaba said and sits by his side. Sachi decides that the bed is too crowded for her and jumps back on the floor, running towards the bathroom, presumably to Watari. She’s already comfortable in the new home. Kyoutani suddenly feels overwhelmed by all of this.

“This might be a stupid question…” Yahaba starts. “But are you okay?”

“I… Don’t know.”

He thought he was really by himself from then on. That he was going to really become a high school dropout and get a lousy job and say good bye to volleyball and his teammates. He already had accepted this miserable outcome and he took for sure that he shouldn’t expect anything better when his friends – _because he has friends now_ – showed up and simply solved most of his problems as if it was nothing. It’s too much kindness all at once. To his horror, his eyes start to sting.

“Kyoutani?” Yahaba reaches for his arm.

The small touch is the last straw. Kyoutani’s eyes are definitely watery now and he doesn’t think about his actions anymore. He leans in and buries his face on Yahaba’s shoulder. He half-expects Yahaba to push him away. A small part of him hopes that he will, so it will be easier to get over this stupid crush that had already got him into so much trouble. This small part, however, is easily smashed into pieces when Yahaba loops his arms loosely around his waist and gently caresses his back.

“It’s okay.” Yahaba murmurs softly and his voice is so soft and beautiful that it should be illegal. “It’s going to be okay.”

And, as Kyoutani inhales sharply to hold back the tears between Yahaba’s arms, he allows himself to believe that. Maybe he’ll figure some way out of this mess and, when while he doesn’t, at least he isn’t alone.


	5. Winter is a romantic season

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Watari is a gift from the heavens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's prompt is Seasons! Again I didn't focus on the prompt as much as I plan on the original idea, but I hope I still get points for trying. Again this chapter has a lot of Watari. I'm happy. I really like Watari.

If a week ago somebody had told him he would spend Monday evening doing homework and having cup noodles with Watari, Kyoutani would have laughed at their face… But that’s exactly what happens. He takes a bath and changes into clean clothes. Yahaba helps them with math before leaving and, after they finish reading together a chapter from the biology book, Watari boils water and serves cup noodles that taste like heaven after eating nothing but a single Yakisoba bread all day. They watch a drama on TV while they eat and Sachi finishes the dog cookies Yahaba left for her. They’ll have to buy proper food for her later.

Except that Kyoutani doesn’t have any money. He’s living here now for free. And Kyoutani might reckless all the time, but even he knows that adding a person and a dog in a household isn’t cheap and he’s apprehensive about it. He’s sure that Watari didn’t consider everything about this situation. The fact that Kyoutani, of all people, is the one worrying is the most concerning thing about the whole case.

He’s already unpacked his things: he only has a couple of clothes aside from his uniform and things that were already inside the backpack when he started to hurriedly stuff clothes in it. Now he only owns a single pair of shoes. Most of his textbooks were left at his father’s home – Watari said he can use his anytime and share Yahaba’s books in class – and so were most of the things he owned. He wonders if his father is keeping them or if he is going to throw everything away and just pretend that he never had a son.

Kyoutani shakes the depressing thought and tries to focus on the situation at hand. Watari comes out of the bathroom with his teeth brushed and, upon meeting Kyoutani’s piercing gaze, he cocks an eyebrow.

“What?” He asks.

“I don’t think you thought this through.” It’s not like Kyoutani to play the responsible role, but since Watari and Yahaba are acting carefree, somebody has to.

“Here we go.” Watari sighs and sits on his bed. “Let it go, Kyoutani.”

“Who even _pays_ for this place?”

“My parents.” Watari stretches his arms absently. “They thought that living by myself would be a good experience for me.”

Great. He’s living at Watari’s folks expenses. Absolutely wonderful. Watari must interpret his expression correctly, because he sighs again.

“Look, this is only temporary, right? If it bothers you so much, you can get a job during vacation and save some money. You won’t lose your scholarship if you work on break, will you?”

“Huh… No.”

“Awesome. Also you said you can cook. I’ve been surviving with only instant food for too long. If you cook for me, I’ll consider your rent paid.”

Kyoutani scowls. “That’s… That’s not the only problem.”

He should probably keep his mouth shut and enjoy his luck while it lasts, but he simply can’t. He’d be less stressed if he were a homeless high school dropout looking for a job because he wouldn’t be troubling anyone. Ever since he was little, he got used to solving things by himself because he didn’t like talking to people and certainly didn’t like the feeling that he owed anything to anyone. Even knowing that Watari  _was_  some kind of saint that was gladly offering him shelter without expecting something in return, he couldn’t relax.

“Then what is the problem?” Watari asks patiently.

“If people at school find out that you let me live with you… They’ll talk about you too, you know?” His ears are burning and he’s almost sure that his face and neck are red now.

“Oh well.” Watari shrugs. “I don’t care that much about rumors. People I care about know what they need to know about me.”

Kyoutani stared at him, baffled.

“You… Are you an actual human being? Did you reach the nirvana or something? Is that why you shave your head?”

Watari laughs. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“How can you be so calm? Doesn’t it… Doesn’t it bother you? That I am… You know.” He looks away, avoiding Watari’s eyes.

“Why would it bother me?”

“It bothers my old man. And the rest of the school. But you and… and the rest of the team… Why do you guys… I just don’t get it.”

“Kyoutani, please. The whole club has known for ages.”

Alright, that’s new. “ _What_?”

“Huh… I probably shouldn’t have said that…” Watari mutters. “Oh, screw it, I’ll say anyway: we’ve been watching you and Yahaba flirt-fight since you two joined the club, everybody knows you have a thing for each other, okay?”

Kyoutani feels his whole body heating up and he’s sure that his skin is red from the tip of his toes to the top of his red. Watari laughs in amusement.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t meddle, but you guys are  _so_  slow!”

“You… What… How can…  _Why?_ ”

“Hey, breathe.” Watari advises. “Don’t freak out. But it’s true, we even… huh… We actually placed bets on when you guys are going to get together. When you started to come to practice regularly.”

That’s a lot of information to digest. Until three days ago, Kyoutani lived with his father and was absolutely sure that his crush was hopelessly unrequited. As a matter of fact, he believed that Yahaba truly hated him. Now he lives with another teenager that happens to be his crush’s best friend and that is now telling that  _Yahaba_  has a  _thing_  for him. Talk about unexpected turn of events.

“Did… Did Yahaba  _tell_  you that? Because his sister said he thinks I’m  _cute_.”

“Oh, have you met Akemi-chan?” Watari smirks. Somehow he manages to look like a nice kid even doing that. “Yahaba didn’t say anything, he’s Yahaba. But trust me, he likes you. Just ask him out already. Oh, and please do it before Christmas or I’ll lose the bet.”

Kyoutani doesn’t know how to respond that. Fortunately, Watari doesn’t need an answer.

“Look at us. Talking about your love life. It almost feels like a sleepover.”

“ _Watari_.” Kyoutani groans because he’s pretty sure he’s dying. That’s unfortunate. He expected to die a spectacular death, maybe fighting a whole gang when he’s an 80 years old man (and winning, of course, but succumbing to the wounds) but it seems like he won’t make that far. He’ll die here, on his newly acquired futon, of pure embarrassment. That’s one lame way to go.

“Okay, okay, sorry!” Watari laughs lightly. “Let’s just go to sleep for now, okay?”

Kyoutani is thankful for the darkness when Watari turns off the lights. After that, the most surprising event of the night – and the ultimate proof that Kyoutani is beyond exhausted – is that he manages to get some sleep after that.

* * *

Things don’t get better as easily at school. People still stare and still whisper when he walks past them. However there is something to be said about Kyoutani’s ability to shut people up with a single dirty look. He still feels mad guilty about staying at Watari’s place and giving nothing in return,  but he promises himself that he’ll pay off somehow and as soon as he can. He’ll find two jobs if necessary and he’ll do it as soon as vacation starts. And he’ll probably build a shrine for Watari and bully people into worshiping him as well.

He misses volleyball, but it’s a good thing that they don’t practice as often, because Kyoutani really does need to study. Yahaba took seriously his promise to tutor him and they meet almost every day to study. Kyoutani always makes sure that Watari is there too or any other second year. It’s a testimony to how desperate he is that he even goes through the trouble to talk to other second years from the club – to everyone’s shock, including his own – to invite them to join their study sessions. Since everybody is freaking out about exams and Yahaba is some nerd with a ridiculous amount of math knowledge, they always accept the invitation.

Soon the “tutoring Kyoutani” sessions become “volleyball club study” sessions. Kyoutani isn’t sure if he’s imagining the disappointment in Yahaba’s face whenever he shows up with another teammate instead of alone.

The truth is that he doesn’t know what to do if he ever find himself alone with Yahaba after what Watari had told him. This is unlike him. He doesn’t usually hesitate before going after his goals, especially when he _thinks_ he will succeed. Heck, even when the possibility of failing was high, it didn’t stop him. When he plays volleyball, he always goes straight for the hit following his instincts (and only lately he learned to consider the other players while at it, but still.)

Nevertheless, this is not volleyball. This is romance, a foreign territory to Kyoutani. He finds it absurdly weird that he had spent a whole life wanting people to get away, but someday he simply met this jerk and thought “Oh, right. I want to wrap this one in my arms and keep it forever.”

Oh well. To be fair, he only started thinking like this after the Puppy Incident.

To summarize everything, he’s beating around the bush. Not something he had done before and not something he wants to do ever again. He _is_ doing something about it and he’s doing really soon.

Any time now.

School year is almost over. The trees on the way to school are almost naked and the weather is getting colder and colder.  The first snow is going to be here soon.

“Hey, we should go out somewhere after the exams.” Yahaba says absently one day when they’re going home and Kyoutani almost chokes on his own spit. “The three of us.”

Sometimes Kyoutani has the feeling that he’s not the only one deliberately avoiding talking about _them_.

“Sure. Where to?” Watari asks.

“I don’t know. Anywhere. You guys can pick.”

“Hm…” Watari scratches his chin, thoughtfully. “What do you think, Kyoutani?”

“Whatever.”

“Why am I not surprised that you’d say that?”

And Yahaba and Kyoutani start to exchange insults because, apparently, Kyoutani should be less _Kyoutanish_ and Yahaba should be less bossy. They get so concentrated on their argument that they don’t notice until several blocks later that Watari had left them alone and walked ahead. Maybe they have a problem with closing themselves in their little fighting world from times to times.

* * *

It starts to snow when the exams come and Kyoutani goes surprisingly well. His grades in math and physics exceed all expectative and he barely manages the rest of the subjects. As soon as they get home after the last exam, he borrows Watari’s laptop to start looking for jobs.

“Hey, Kyoutani, can you ice skate?” Watari asks from across the room, where he’s rubbing Sachi’s belly.

“Hn.” He nods absently. He’s fairly sure that he had tried every single existent physical activity before settling down for volleyball and ice skating was one of them.

“You know… There is a skating rink here. Remember that Yahaba wanted to go out after the exams?”

“You wanna go ice skating then?”

“Who, lil’ old me? Nah. I think I’m getting mysteriously sick.”

Kyoutani lifts his eyes from the laptop for the first time. Watari raises his eyebrows suggestively and Kyoutani feels himself blushing when he realizes what he means. He wants Kyoutani to go alone with Yahaba. Fuck.

The main problem with Yahaba is that the guy is absolutely impossible to read. There are times in which Kyoutani is sure that he’s being flirted with, but soon after that Yahaba avoids him and almost gives him a cold shoulder. Yahaba keeps giving him mixed signals that Kyoutani absolutely has no idea of how to interpret. He doubts that even somebody with experience in romance would know how to deal with this guy. Whenever Kyoutani is so sure that he’s about to kiss him on the spot, Yahaba retreats as if nothing had ever happened between the two of them and this torturing game of catch and release is making him insecure. Kyoutani doesn’t know how to deal with insecurity either.

Watari sometimes nudges them about it, half-jokingly and half-serious. Yahaba always tells him to shut up, which burns Kyoutani’s hopes. Watari tells him that Yahaba is just being tsundere. Kyoutani has zero idea of what a tsundere is, but it doesn’t compel him to invest on someone who’s clearly uncomfortable with people joking about them getting together.

“This would be absurdly corny.” He complains.

“Kyoutani...” Watari pouts.

“Fine, I’ll go. But it won’t be a date.”

At that, Watari seems satisfied. Kyoutani is, too, somehow. He hates that he’s been dancing around this situation without doing anything. It’s supposed to be Yahaba’s job to read into everything and to waste lots of time analyzing the available options and every boring detail. Kyoutani’s job is to go ahead and get stuff done. That’s why he will _digest_ those stupid butterflies and he won’t spend one more day without getting rid of that elephant in the room, for the good or for the worst.

Why would he hesitate? Yahaba can reject him, right. However, at this point, he doubts it will ruin their relationship too much. He learned to trust Yahaba (and Watari). After all they had done for him, he seriously believe that they won’t stop being friends no matter what. And if he get himself dumped, he’ll have the whole winter to get over it before club activities (and school) resumes. So he will (maybe) take the risk, as he always does.

Feeling the weirdest combination of bravado and anxiety, he says good bye to Watari and Sachi on a snowy Monday morning and goes to the park in which they promised to meet up. He’s slightly uncomfortable because he’s wearing some of Watari’s clothes to protect himself from the cold. They’re almost the same height, but Kyoutani is more muscular, making the sweater he’s wearing too tight for his liking. The big coat, however, suits him just right and the scarf is really soft.  Yahaba is already there. Kyoutani does not pay attention in how cute he looks in winter clothes.

_How dare this asshole wear a beanie? Who does he think he is? Why must he do this to Kyoutani’s heart?_

“Hey. Where’s Watari?”

“Sick.” It doesn’t sound convincing, even to himself, but he stuffs his chest as if he’s defying Yahaba to doubt him.

“Oh…”  _Is it because of the cold or Yahaba is blushing_? “Oh… Okay. I guess it’s just the two of us. Where are we going… Are those ice skates?”

“Yeah.” Kyoutani shows the pair Watari lent to him. “Didn’t Watari tell you where we were going?”

“No… He didn’t. Of course he didn’t. But let’s go anyway.”

Yahaba starts mumbling something under his breath and all that Kyoutani can grasp out of it is Watari’s name and a few curses. He doesn’t understand what’s the matter even though he’s trying to – he’s trying to catch any signal, any little detail that shows that he has a chance. He just wants a little green light that shows him that it’s the right time to do something. He had promised himself that, if he doesn’t manage to do something by the end of the day, it means he doesn’t deserve Yahaba and he will give up. He always worked better under pressure and giving himself a punishment for not succeeding will certainly help.

“The city looks so pretty this time of the year.” Yahaba marvels after a while.

Kyoutani grunts an agreement. He can see what Yahaba means: everything is white and clear, soft looking snow gently sitting on naked trees and roofs. The contrast of their dark clothes with the light ice around them it’s also nice to look at.

“Oh, is that the skating rink we’re heading to?”

Another grunt. The rink is actually a frozen lake someone circled with a fence and built a small booth in which people can rent ice skates. It isn’t too busy since the week has just begun, which serves Kyoutani just right. He looks for a bench to sit and put on his ice skates while Yahaba goes rent a pair for himself. Kyoutani uses the time alone to breathe and tell himself to relax. He’s being stupid. He had hanged out with Yahaba lots of times. It’s true that, on the other times, most of the volleyball club members were with then, but still. There is no reason to freak out just because this one time they’re alone and Kyoutani hopes to get lucky by the end of the afternoon.

…

Yeah, that doesn’t help him to get less restless. He decides to go ahead and enter the rink by himself, thinking the movement will help him to get rid of his uneasiness. The last time he ice skated he was nothing but a small brat, but apparently this is one of those “like riding a bicycle” things. You don’t forget it regardless of the lack of practice. That or Kyoutani’s physical abilities are being as reliable as always. He might be bad at talking to people and at studying and at being a social human being in general, but he slides smoothly on the ice, confident on his own balance. He’s almost feeling better when he spots Yahaba on the bench putting on his ice skates. He looks like he’s just been forced to swallow rotten broccoli, which is not an expression that you want to see on your date’s face.

“What’s the problem? Just come already.”

Kyoutani is slightly aware that he should probably sound more refreshing and less impatient at this point, but he’s not good at pretending being something he isn’t. If they’re going to have a date, it’s going to be a Kyoutani style date. Which might not be the most romantic kind of date, but hey. He’s trying.

“I’m _coming_ , shut up!”

Yahaba awkwardly gets up from the bench and staggers towards the ice. Kyoutani raises an eyebrow and Yahaba pulls a face. He keeps his hands on the fence and puts an experimental foot on the ice so slowly that Kyoutani gets tired of waiting and approaches him. As Yahaba tries his best to stay still on a pair of wobbly legs, Kyoutani realizes.

“You… Could it be that you can’t skate?”

“Huh…”

“You can’t!” Kyoutani wheezes. “Why did you agree on going ice skating if you don’t know how, you dumb fuck?”

“Shut _up_ , I don’t _know_ , I was nervous!”

“Nervous? You get nervous?” Kyoutani scoffs. “I didn’t know demons could get nervous.”

Yahaba gapes at him and tries to reach for him – probably to try and strangle him – but Kyoutani skates out of his reach with a smug grin. Yahaba stumbles and grabs the fence once again. The only thing left for him to do is to give Kyoutani a dirty look. He was nervous. So even a brat like Yahaba can get nervous sometimes.

“Well.” He huffs and extends a hand for Kyoutani. “Since we’re already here I already rented these, you’re going to teach me.”

“I’m sorry. Did you just say that I, a simple commoner, have something to teach to the almighty captain-sama?”

Yahaba groans. “ _Kyoutani_.”

He can’t help it but wear a shit-eating grin as he grabs one of Yahaba’s hands and then the other. Yahaba wobbles some more and Kyoutani would rather die than admit out loud how adorable it is as he slowly skates backwards with ease, dragging Yahaba with him.

“What do I do now?”

Kyoutani had never heard Yahaba sounding so panicked, so he tries to hold back and don’t tease that much. “You just slide your feet.”

“Oh wow, thank you. You’re a shitty teacher.”

“I’m letting you go.”

Yahaba grips on his hands. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Only then Kyoutani fully realizes that he and Yahaba are technically holding hands. This is a situation like these one from the dramas Watari likes to watch so much – and he wonders if it was this what Watari planned.

The fact that Yahaba came here even though Watari isn’t with them and when he freaking can’t skate _must_ mean something. Is has to. But Kyoutani is tired to trying to comprehend complicated stuff. He isn’t one for too much brain work. He’d rather follow his instincts. Kyoutani makes a reckless decision – like most of his decisions are – and says:

“Hey. We can stop now and do something else if you want.”

If Yahaba says he wants to leave, Kyoutani is giving up. If Yahaba stays, then Kyoutani will confess today and everything else be damned.

“Ugh. I just hate ice, okay?” Yahaba says and Kyoutani feels his stomach dropping several inches. “I’m not going anywhere until I defeat it.”

Kyoutani blinks. “You want to defeat the ice.”

“I’m gonna kick the ice in the ass.” Yahaba promises.

Kyoutani grins. That’s it. He’s a goner. This is the men with whom he fell in love. He is not giving up.


	6. The Puppy Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Saburo gets a backstory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's prompt is Past, so you guys are finally going to know what on earth is the Puppy incident! I hope you don't find it too anticlimactic. I couldn't help it. I strongly believe that what Kyoutani loves the most about Yahaba is his fighting spirit. This was the funnest chapter to write, I hope you guys enjoy it just as much as I did. (And yes, I am posting from work. Sue me.)

Kentarou Kyoutani is a boy that loves volleyball, but hates the volleyball club.

He wants to play, but everyone else is so _slow_ and stupid and annoying and, even though Kyoutani is stronger and better than most of them, they won't listen to him. People won't stop nagging him about showing his senpais some respect. He really doesn't understand why, after all senpais are just a bunch of kids, just like him... Except that they suck and they still expect him to be a compliant to their dumb demands just because they were born one or two years before him. So annoying.

The guys from his year are no good either. There are some really loud guys, some annoying ones, a wimpy baldie libero and _him_. Satan himself. A setter that is also his classmate and has the habit of following that obnoxious Oikawa like a whipped dog. Shigeru Yahaba.

On the beginning, Yahaba seemed pretty neutral to Kyoutani.

Well, not exactly neutral, because Kyoutani noticed that he had a pretty face. Not a flashy pretty, like Oikawa's, but a honest, discreet kind of beauty. He had the kind of face Kyoutani wouldn't mind looking at for a long time. Kyoutani doesn't get to look too much at Yahaba's pretty face, although, because within a few weeks after he joins the club, he realizes that Yahaba actually hates him. A lot. At first he wondered if Yahaba wasn't just a serious case of resting bitch face. However he had seen Yahaba's neutral expression before and he finds out soon enough that no, Yahaba's disgusted scowl is something reserved for Kyoutani and Kyoutani only. He tried to glare back once or twice, but Yahaba didn't even falter. He wouldn't talk to Kyoutani unless it was absolutely necessary and he would never do it without sounding absurdly petulant and annoyed. That is a first. Nobody had ever _glared back_  at Kyoutani. 

At first, judging by the way Yahaba worshiped Oikawa, Kyoutani had him for a pushover. Upon seeing how Yahaba never seems to be intimidated by him, Kyoutani develops a reluctant and annoyed respect towards him. 

Eventually, Kyoutani stops going to practice. He's getting more and more frustrated about his unsuccessful attempts to play with them. He gets tired. He tells himself that it doesn't matter and decides to stop. He doesn't have the heart to resign from the club, nevertheless. He's still a member, technically, he just doesn't... participate. As he wonders if he's going to lose his scholarship, he keeps telling himself that he doesn't care for that stupid club anyway. (Aside from that, he's caught by surprise when Yahaba's gawks in class get worse. It's almost as if he gets angry at the simply sight of Kyoutani and Kyoutani honestly has no idea why. He isn't going to the club anymore. He is no longer disrespecting Yahaba's precious senpais. Then what the hell?)

It happens by the time his first year of high school is almost ending. His father asks him to buy some new tools on a store close to Aoba Johsai. It's kind of a pain to go out of his way like this, but it's not like he has club activities. He has a lot of free time now. Trying to not be bitter about it, he makes his way to the store his father told him about. It isn't that hard to find the tools he's looking for, so it doesn't take him too much time. He tells himself that he's happy for having more time to mess around, but he really isn't. He's restless and uncomfortable and bored to death.

Kyoutani is on his way home when he hears a soft voice going: "What the _fuck_?" 

He doesn't know why it catches his attention. Maybe it's because that simply sounded weird, for the voice is too melodious and gentle, the kind of voice you hear coming from prince-like characters in anime, and it doesn't suit curse words at all. Maybe Kyoutani just reached a whole new level of boredom. The thing is that he decides to investigate the origin of the voice and that's when he sees Yahaba sprinting to an alley. 

His curiosity grows even more, so Kyoutani follows him. He doesn't want to be seen, thus he tries to hide, but that's not necessary. Yahaba is too busy to notice Kyoutani, because he's running towards... Well, Kyoutani is not sure, but it seems to be a fight between the smallest dog in the world and the biggest, fattest, ugliest cat to ever walk on earth. The dog is nothing but a puppy - a beagle, Kyoutani notices - but it doesn't have one of it's frontal legs, one of it's ears is bleeding - is it missing a piece? - and it's crying as it tries desperately to run on it's three legs. The cat - the most demonic looking animal Kyoutani had ever seen - hisses and tries to reach for the puppy with it's claws and that's when Yahaba jumps between them.

"No, _bad cat_!" Yahaba swings his backpack in front of the cat, startling it and making it jump out of Yahaba's reach.

Most cats would have left. Kyoutani expects it to give up and run away, as stray cats do whenever they see humans. But not demon cat. Demon cat isn't afraid of a single Yahaba. It hisses again and gets ready to jump. Both the dog and Yahaba look equally terrified. With a surprised yelp, Yahaba grabs the puppy and runs from demon cat.

Kyoutani's eyes widen in surprise. He always took Yahaba for the rich boy type. Maybe is because Yahaba never looks sleepy, even when he arrives early for practice, or the way his hair is always nicely done and his uniform is never wrinkled. Yahaba looks like the kind of guy that hates to get his hands dirty. Kyoutani would never have expected to see Yahaba running to stop a fight between stray animals or holding something as filthy as that unfortunate puppy. It's the shock that freezes Kyoutani in the place instead of going there to help - not that he cares for Yahaba, but he does care about all dogs - so he just watches the scene as it grows wilder.

"The _hell_!" Yahaba snaps, running to the back of the alley. He climbs a dumpster without hesitation, holding the dog protectively against his chest and dirtying his once impeccable uniform of mud and blood. Apparently the cat is too fat to follow him up there, but it keeps making threatening sounds and violently scratching the dumpster as high as it can reach. Yahaba gives a frightened look at the cat. "What's _wrong_ with you? Why do you want to hurt a _puppy_? Go away, you little shit!"

If Kyoutani wasn't still petrified by the shock - and worried about the puppy -, he would have laughed at the fact that Yahaba - that Yahaba that is always complimented by the math teacher, the pretty boy, one of Oikawa's groupies - was trying to reason with a stray possessed cat. The cat lets out what must the the most horrendous meow ever heard. The puppy yelps.

"Oh wow, you _are_ some kind of demon." Yahaba huffs. He looks almost offended that the cat is apparently trying to murder them. After that, he gives the puppy a very concerned look. Kyoutani had seen Yahaba's neutral face. He had seen him smiling from afar. He was very used to Yahaba's annoyed face. But nothing in the world could have prepared Kyoutani for the sincere worry on his eyes on the behalf of a stray puppy. His heart clenches painfully.

"Alright." He hears Yahaba sighing. "Hang in there, little buddy. I'm saving us both from the ugly bad kitty. In one... two... THREE!" Yahaba jumps on the floor again and immediately starts to run. Demon cat sprint after him. "Oh, fuck, fuck, _fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck_...!" And Yahaba dashes past Kyoutani without even noticing him there, the puppy wailing on his arms and the demon cat right on their track.

Kyoutani watches them disappearing on the next street corner, his heart racing as if he's running with them. _What is this feeling_?

He doesn't think he'll ever look at Yahaba the same way.

 

"Kyoutani! _Kyoutani_!" A soft, familiar voice calls out, frightened. Yahaba. Why is Yahaba so anxious? "Oh my God, you're dead. You're dead and I killed you. What will I say to Sachi?"

Kyoutani blinks, confused. The first thing he wants to know is why he is lying down on something so cold. The second is why the hell his head hurts this much. The third is why Yahaba is freaking out so bad. Is the demon cat still following him? If so, why did he stop to talk to Kyoutani? He blinks one more time and groans, because his head fucking _aches,_ but now he can see Yahaba's pale face hoovering over his. What's happening? Wasn't he on that weird alley watching Yahaba save a puppy?

"You're alive!" Yahaba marvels, his face recovering a little bit of color. "Good God, are you okay?"

Kyoutani looks around. No, he's not on that alley. That happened a year ago. He's on an ice rink with Yahaba. He sits up slowly, feeling Yahaba's supporting arm on his back, helping him. Was he dreaming? Remembering? Why was he lying down on the ice, anyway?

"You're not. You're not okay, oh my God." Yahaba panics. "I'm taking you to the hospital. You blacked out for a few seconds, didn't you? Holy cow, please don't die, Kyoutani."

"I'm not dying, you freak, calm down!" Kyoutani snarls. A few people are looking at the two boys sitting on the ice, some hesitating as if wanting to offer help, but not sure if they should. To prevent some stranger from butting in, Kyoutani starts to stand up.

"Hey, easy!" Yahaba gasps, also standing - that is, if you can call "to stand" the way he balanced himself over his wobbly legs. "Don't push yourself. Where does it hurt?"

"I said I'm fine." He sighs, but he doesn't try to push away the arm Yahaba keeps on his lower back. Partially because it's nice to be close to Yahaba and partially because he thinks Yahaba is more looking for stability for himself than stabilizing Kyoutani. "What just happened?"

"You let go of me and I almost fell and I tried to hold onto you and you fell and face planted on the ice and I think you actually passed out for a few seconds." Yahaba explains, distressed. Oh, so _that's_ why his forehead hurts so much."I'm so sorry."

Kyoutani grunts something. What a great outing this is becoming. First he takes Yahaba to ice skating when Yahaba doesn't even own skates. After that they bicker a lot as Kyoutani tries to explain the obvious - what's the big secret about skating anyway? You just have to fucking slide! - and then he falls and dreams with the day he fell in love with Yahaba.

Now that he thinks about it, falling in love with someone because they were ready to fight a big evil cat it's a stupid thing. What was he supposed to say to their adopted children? "Oh, yes, I hated your other father, but one day I saw him standing on the top of a dumpster yelling at a possessed cat and I just knew he was the one."

"Come on, let's go take a sit."

Kyoutani rolls his eyes, but decides to oblige. His head _does_ hurt like a bitch, after all. He can feel that Yahaba is trying to support him, but even after falling on the ice and literally passing out, Kyoutani still has more balance over the pair of skates. He wonders how the heck someone who's so elegant on the court can look so clumsy. They stagger to the bench and Yahaba doesn't wait more than a few seconds to recover his shoes from the booth, getting rid of the skates. Kyoutani also changes into his own shoes as he waits.

When Yahaba comes back, he's taking a handkerchief from his pocket - because of _course_ Yahaba has a handkerchief -  and uses it to wrap a handful of snow. He hurriedly sits by Kyoutani's side again. "Here." He offers. "Hold this where hurts."

Kyoutani does it, but not without rolling his eyes. His gloved hand protects his fingers from the cold, but his forehead throbs a little when he puts the improvised cold compress on place.

"I'm so sorry." Yahaba repeats, restless.

"If you say you're sorry one more time, I'm punching you."

"But I know you can't afford to lose any brain cells since you're already so dumb, and yet I made you hit your head."

Kyoutani actually punches him on the shoulder. Yahaba yelps, but his afflicted expression is soon replaced by a relieved smile. Maybe he thinks that Kyoutani's state is not that bad if he still has strength to hit him.

"But seriously." Yahaba holds his hand in front of Kyoutani's face, three fingers lifted. "How many fingers do you see?"

"Seven."

" _Kyoutani_!" He groans and then sighs. "Maybe we should go home. Or to a hospital. Definitely to a hospital."

Kyoutani panics. He had promised himself that he would give up on Yahaba if he didn't manage to confess his feelings until the end of this date. He's no love expert, but he's fairly sure that their current situation is not the right mood to a confession, but he's out of time if they're going home. He has to make Yahaba stay to do more romantic stuff, such as... as... As what? What do people even do on dates? They get to know each other, right. But Kyoutani and Yahaba already know plenty about each other, so what's left? To have a good time together. What kind of fun activities are good for a date? He tries to remember what he saw on Watari's cheesy dramas. On dates, people go to the movies or  to amusement parks and... and they talk and... and eat things, like ice cream and sweets? _What???_

"We can't go home yet, we didn't even have ice cream!" He complains, his desperation making him sound grumpier than usual.

Yahaba gives him a weird look. "Kyoutani, is cold as tits in here and you just fell on the ice. You can't possibly want ice cream."

Right. God damn it.

"Don't say "tits". It sounds weird when you say it with that pretty boy face of yours."

"Excuse me?" Yahaba gapes. "This is the only face that I have!"

Before Kyoutani can think of a reply, he sees them. Four familiar young men walk towards the ice rink and Kyoutani is sure that now he's done for. Oikawa, Iwaizumi, Hanamaki and Matsukawa chatter excitedly together. Kyoutani curses under his breath, because of course the four of them would hang out together a little before going to separate universities. And of course they have to choose to come to that one ice rink just at the same time that Yahaba and Kyoutani are there. _Of fucking course_.

He panics and tries to make himself smaller and even tries to hide behind Yahaba, but it's no good. Yahaba looks around to see what caused Kyoutani's distress and his observant eyes find it quickly. 

"Aren't those our upperclassmen?" And then he glares at Kyoutani. "Why are you hiding, you dork?"

"It's Oikawa!" Kyoutani whines. "I don't want him to see us in the middle of damn date!"

"This is a _date_?" Yahaba half-shouts.

...

Kyoutani is not a bad kid. He may not be the gentlest one or the most sociable, but he never harms anyone (without a good reason). He takes good care of his dog and tries to stay out of people's way. He went through a lot this year between his first love and facing his sexuality and getting shit from his father and everything else. All he wanted was to have a nice outing with the guy he likes and have fun and get Yahaba to fall for him. He only wanted to confess his feelings in a romantic, smooth way and be reciprocated. He doesn't think he's asking for much. He doesn't deserve this.

"That's not what I said." He says, already panicking.

"That's _literally_ what you just said."

Yahaba covers his mouth with both of his hands, but it's still possible to see that he's smiling widely. As always, Yahaba is impossible to read. Is he happy? Is that a mocking smile and he thinks Kyoutani is stupid for ever thinking about going on a date with him? He can't tell. And it makes him panic even more.

"Hey, look at that! Aren't those Yahaba and Kyoutani?" 

Kyoutani wonders if it's okay to become one with the floor. Just forget about everything, from Yahaba to his annoying ex-senpais, lay down on the cold ground and wait for the sweet embrace of death. 

"H-hey." He hears Yahaba stammering as the four third years approach them. He's definitely holding back laughter. Oh God, he's laughing at Kyoutani.

"What are you guys doing here by yourselves?" Iwaizumi asks. "What's with your forehead, Kyoutani?"

"He kind of fell b-because of me." Yahaba is still stuttering with restrained amusement. Kyoutani feels his face burning. Is it really this funny that he thought this could be a date? Is that much of an absurd? "W-we were going to get it checked and stuff."

"Oh." Oikawa says flatly. "Guys, I think we should leave them alone."

_Oh, God, please no._

"Why? They could join us."

_Please, Oikawa, don't do it._

Oikawa slaps Iwaizumi on the arm and mutters: "Don't be dense, they're obviously on a date."

_Oh my God._

"Oh shoot, for real?" Hanamaki smirks. "So that means Watari won the bet?"

At this point. Kyoutani doesn't even have the power to get mad anymore. His spirit has been crushed. He just stares at them and demands: "Did you guys really make a bet?"

"What bet?"

"You stay out of this, Yahaba!"

Yahaba looks bewildered, but before he can start yet another fight, Matsukawa sighs: "Alright, this was awkward as hell. We shall take our leave now."

"Matsun's right. Sorry, Mad Dog-chan, Yahaba." Oikawa grins, clinging onto Iwaizumi's arm and dragging him along as they walk away.

"Be responsible during and after the date, kids!" Hanamaki calls out, waving at them.

"Yeah, keep your hands to yourselves!" Matsukawa adds and Kyoutani can see Oikawa slapping them both.

Kyoutani can't believe those four assholes just walked by, made a lot of damage and fled, leaving that giant embarrassing mess for Kyoutani to clean up. A few moments of the awkwardest of the silences later, Yahaba clears his throat.

"So... huh... We probably should really have your head checked."

"No. Going home now." Kyoutani stands. Only then he realizes that he's still holding Yahaba's handkerchief and now his forehead is damp from the melting snow. He shakes it a little, getting rid of the remainings of ice and gives back the wet piece of fabric.

"Wha- Wait, Kyoutani!" Yahaba follows him. "Geez, don't be stubborn, you're hurt."

"Not feeling anything." It's only half true. Physically, he's okay. His head still aches a little, be had worse injuries playing volleyball. He was going to be fine. Emotionally, however...

"Fine, then, but don't come back to haunt me if you die." Yahaba huffs. "And I'm walking you home."

Kyoutani groans, but he doesn't protest. He doesn't look at Yahaba again or enjoys the winter scenery on the way back. Actually, he tries not to think about anything so hard he starts counting from 1000 to 0 in his head. Fortunately for him, the trip between the ice rink and Watari's apartment isn't a long one. He only has to endure about fifteen minutes of silence until he sees the familiar apartment complex. He wants to run inside already, but, before he does, he feels a hand grabbing his wrist.

"Kyoutani." Yahaba calls.

He sighs and turns around to face him. He's pouting, but who can blame him? 

"What?" 

Yahaba hesitates for a second and eyes their surroundings, as if looking for someone. There is nobody else but them on the cold street. He takes a deep breath, lets go of Kyoutani's wrist and cups his face with both hands. Kyoutani stills, confused by the gesture, when Shigeru Yahaba - the stupid pretty boy that glares at people he doesn't like shamelessly, the dork that saves puppies from cats of the doom, the finicky-looking boy that hides a very though side, _that Yahaba_ \- leans down and cover Kyoutani's lips with his own. 

In the middle of the snowy street, Yahaba kisses Kyoutani.

And it only takes him a few seconds of frozen awe to be fully awakened by Yahaba's sweet scent and kiss him back.


	7. It doesn't take too many people to make one happy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kyoutani gets used to his new daily life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The last chapter! I S U R V I V E D!  
> I'm never going to write a chapter per day in my life. Never again. I thought I was gonna die at least twice, for real.  
> But! So many people left beautiful comments that gave me strength to keep breathing (and typing) so I really need to thank you guys. I didn't expect this many people to actually read (and enjoy) this story, I'm so happy!  
> I also have to leave special thanks to [Mon](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Dogchasingcars/pseuds/Dogchasingcars) that endured me when I freaked out and always makes me inspired for Kyouhaba. Serio. Gracias.  
> I'm sort of sad about Kyouhaba week ending, but I already have a few chapters of my next kyouhaba fic ready, so I think I'm not going to be away from my children for too long.  
> Anyway I babbled enough already, have the last chapter!  
> EDIT: THIS FIC NOW HAS FANART! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! [LOOK AT IT! LOOK AT HOW LOVELY IT IS](http://johnnyappleseedlives.tumblr.com/post/129433262496/kyohaba-week-baby-inspired-by-donotkawaiis-fic)! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS AAAH

Kyoutani now has a new routine. He finds the two jobs he wanted for vacation and one of them is actually in a pet shop, where he gets to take care of a lot of dogs. He doesn't save as much money as he expected, considering the amount of time that he spends working, but it's something. Watari often tells him to take a break, but he's not that tired. He has a lot of stamina, so energy is not a problem, and he really likes working. It keeps his mind busy and his body active. Since he doesn't appear too drained, soon Watari stops complaining. There are no downsides. 

Oh, well,  _almost_  no downsides. Yahaba does whine a bit because it's their first month dating and Kyoutani spent almost all of his free time working. Regardless, Kyoutani feels supported. There is something similar to pride on Yahaba's eyes whenever they meet. Kyoutani feels appreciated and that's everything he needs from a boyfriend.

Because that's how things are now. He has a boyfriend. _Yahaba_ is his boyfriend. Sometimes he finds himself repeating those words in his head to be sure that this is actually reality. Apparently, it is.

And things seem to be taking a turn for the best now. On the pet shop, his employer asks if he isn't interested in walking dogs once school resumes. He doesn't think walking dogs once or twice a week counts as an actual job, so the school might not have a problem with it (Watari insists that he should talk to someone at school about this, but Kyoutani decides not to. If they find out, he'll look for a way out of it. What the eyes don't see...) and it will keep money coming. Not enough, of course, but at least he can help Watari a little, and it won't take that much time (Yahaba would kill him for sure if his grades get too bad again.) Everything is going well.

Vacation is almost over when his phone rings. Kyoutani had almost forgotten that he even owned a phone, because the only person that ever called him was... well... His father. That's why there are a few seconds of confusion in which he just stares at the backpack when he hears a muffled ringtone coming from its inside. He picks the phone, but upon seeing the name on the screen, he shuts it down immediately. Because there is only one person that calls him.

Watari, that is watching TV with Sachi’s head resting on his lap, looks at him. “Who was it?”

Kyoutani shakes his head and doesn’t say anything. Watari frowns, worried, but doesn’t push the subject. It has been weeks – fucking _weeks_ – since that stupid old man had yelled awful things at his face and then kicked him out without any remorse. He didn’t care that his son had nowhere to go or nobody to help him. Then screw it. Kyoutani didn’t want to talk to him either.

He finds it hard to relax after that, nonetheless. Horrible thoughts won’t stop invading his head, such as accidents or illnesses or all sort of nasty things that can happen to a man that lives by himself. Because why else would he try to call his son if he didn’t need him? He tries to convince himself that it can’t be that bad, but the uncertainty is killing him. Even though he worked all day long, he doesn’t feel hungry or sleepy. Hours later, he finds himself squirming restless on his futon. Watari’s soft snores are the only audible sound in the dark and the only thing keeping Kyoutani from going insane.

When everything gets too much to bear, he fishes for the phone in his backpack. There isn’t a single cell on his body that wants to call his father – he’s hurt and he’s nothing if not honest. He’s not ready to forgive and he is not capable of _pretending_. – so he calls Yahaba instead. He didn’t even have Yahaba’s number, he had to look for it in Watari’s phone, but he calls him anyway. It feels more right than waking up Watari.

“ _What the fuuuuuuck…_?” Yahaba’s voice is hoarse from sleep when he picks up, but even through the phone it sounds beautiful. Kyoutani always found Yahaba’s voice very soothing.

“I already told you to stop swearing.” He murmurs to the phone. “It doesn’t suit you at all.”

“ _Kyoutani?_ ” He can picture Yahaba rubbing his eyes. “What time is it…?”

“Dunno.” He mutters and feels a little guilty for calling. Not enough to hang up, however.

There is a pause on the other side and he hears the soft noise of fabric rustling. Yahaba is sitting up, he’s sure.

“ _Are you okay? Your voice sound like shit._ ”

“Stop swearing already.”

“ _Kyoutani_.”

“My father called me.”

This time the silence is heavy. Even someone as dense as Kyoutani can feel it. When Yahaba speaks again, he sounds fully awake:

“ _And? What did he say?_ ”

“Nothing. I didn’t pick up. I don’t wanna talk to him.”

“ _But you are not okay about this_.” It’s not a question, so Kyoutani doesn’t answer. He rolls to the side, phone still firmly held against his ear. He’s unsure of what’s the purpose of this call even now. “ _Fuck, Kyoutani, you... Huh…_ ”

So even Yahaba doesn’t know what to say in this situation. Well, that’s okay. Kyoutani didn’t call him for advice. He called him because he desperately needed to hear his voice.

“It’s so ridiculous when you curse. You have this stupid pretty face and this soft voice. It sounds so off.”

And that’s all it takes for Yahaba to pick up his mood. There is a sigh on the other side of the line before Yahaba starts do utter every single bad word he knows. It’s a little different of the traditional idea of boyfriends exchanging obscenities through the phone, but it makes Kyoutani laugh a little.  He covers his mouth to make sure the sound won’t wake up Watari or Sachi and, apparently, he is successful.

“It sounds like a cartoon character trying to look tough.”

“ _What can I do? Not everybody is born ready to be a jerk like you_.”

They fall into their usual banter after that. Kyoutani’s mind never wanders too far from his worries, but he does feel less like there is a hole on his stomach. Not long after, he falls asleep.

On the next morning they meet for the first day of school and there is nothing on Yahaba’s face that indicates that he woke up in the middle of the night except a slight redness on his eyes that can easily go unnoticed. Once again Kyoutani is convinced that Yahaba can’t be a regular human being. The fact that his boyfriend is a possible demon, however, doesn’t make any less pleasant when he receives a kiss on the cheek and a squeeze in the hand.

After school, Kyoutani walks to the building where his father works. He sits on a bus stop nearby and waits until he sees the familiar man leaving. He doesn’t look sick. Maybe tired or a little skinnier, but definitely not ill. A woman – probably a colleague – walks with him and chatters passionately about something Kyoutani can’t figure what from across the street. His father listens with his usual frown in place, but focused enough to not notice that his son is nearby. Satisfied, Kyoutani leaves.

That becomes another addition to Kyoutani’s new routine: everyday he goes to school, he plays volleyball, Watari forces him to do his homework and he escapes to somewhere where he can be a few minutes alone with Yahaba. Not necessarily in that order. Three times a week, he walks dogs for the pet shop. He technically isn’t a formal employee and he doesn’t wear a uniform, so nobody can accuse him of not being just a regular guy that really loves walking dogs. And at least once every other week he takes a peek on his father getting out of work.

Sometimes he’s alone. Sometimes with a couple of coworkers. Sometimes only with the woman Kyoutani saw on the first time.  But the important thing is that he’s apparently well. Kyoutani doesn’t need to know anything else to keep living in peace. The only person that knows about this part of his routine is Yahaba. He sometimes tells Kyoutani to talk to his father, but he never pushes the subject when refused. It works.

Moreover, Kyoutani is enjoying – on his own way – his last year of high school. Being part of the club is more fun than ever.

“And I won the bet.” Watari announces proudly on the first day.

“Yeah, I’m not sure about that.” Yahaba muses, thoughtfully.

Kyoutani raises an eyebrow at him, already knowing what’s coming. After they officially started dating, Kyoutani told Yahaba about the bet. Yahaba got surprisingly annoyed about it – much more than Kyoutani.

“What do you mean?” Watari asks flatly. “I betted that you two would be together before Christmas. I won.”

“Me? Together with who? Kyoutani? Nah, I don’t remember that.”

Watari gasps. “What do you mean by that? He’s your boyfriend! Kyoutani, tell him you’re his boyfriend. No… tell the _team_ he’s _your_ boyfriend.”

Kyoutani only shrugs and Watari wails, starting a dramatic speech about fake friends and betrayal.

(In the end, Kyoutani and Yahaba give in and tell everyone they’re dating, because no one can resist Watari.)

(That causes a lot of whooping and gross jokes on the locker room. Yahaba gets mad and almost scares to death all of them. Kyoutani had already seen his murderous side, so he's not impressed.)

The team is strong. Iwaizumi graduating (and Oikawa, Kyoutani admits begrudgingly) was a big loss for the club, but they’re slowly finding their own pace. Practice is almost always very productive  (except for that one day in which they found out that Kindaichi can lick his elbow and every club member stops practice to try it and then they start to show off their secret useless talents. The coach walks in on Kunimi showing how he can wiggle his ears and lectures them) and Kyoutani almost never has to yell at anyone (which is a good thing, because when he yells at teammates, Yahaba yells at him, which causes a whole week of jokes about how whipped Kyoutani is) and he feels that this time they can make it to the nationals.

He gets used to visiting Yahaba’s house as well. Yahaba’s mother is a tall lady, as pretty as her son, and she always offers him too much food whenever he drops by. Akemi is there sometimes, too, and she demands to know about Sachi’s whereabouts and wants Kyoutani to give her piggyback rides and just bosses him around… pretty much like her older brother.

They waste time on school festival. Kyoutani and Yahaba’s class makes a crossdress café, which is the reason why the two of them can be seen walking around the school in full maid costume. Watari takes a lot of pictures and a girl from the manga club asks if she can have copies for references, whatever the hell that means.

A few weeks later, Watari and the girl start dating. Go figure.

After that Kyoutani is dragged into more double dates than he expected and he enjoys them more than he’s willing to admit out loud. Watari’s girlfriend is okay, even though she makes those squeaky sounds whenever Yahaba and Kyoutani do things like hold hands or just touching in general. Watari always gives them an apologetic smile, but never bothers explaining her behavior.

It’s a regular Saturday afternoon that his phone rings again. Only then Kyoutani notices that his phone is still working even though he never bothered paying any bills. It should have been canceled by now… unless someone is paying for it. He’s fairly sure that the person calling is the same paying the bills.

Instead of picking up, he tosses the phone out of his reach and announces to Watari that he’s going out. It’s a good thing that Yahaba’s house is so close, really.

“Oh, Kentarou-kun.” Yahaba’s mother is coming out when Kyoutani gets there. “Please, go in, Shigeru is in his bedroom. Sorry I have to leave now, I have an appointment, but don’t be shy and make Shigeru be a good host, will you?” He mutters something and she looks satisfied enough with it. “You boys behave!”

Kyoutani flushes a little. She’s not aware of the nature of his relationship with her son – or at least she shouldn’t be, since nobody told her – but there are times in which he swears that she does know _something_. Either way, Kyoutani locks the door behind him when he enters Yahaba’s room, like he does every time he comes over.

Yahaba is lying on the bed reading a manga. He eyes Kyoutani carefully before simply lifting his arms, leaving room enough for Kyoutani to join him on the bed and rest his face on his chest. That’s exactly what he does. Yahaba adjusts beneath him, as Kyoutani half-wraps his arms around him, and then proceeds to turn his eyes to his manga once more.

“Did he call again?”

A soft grunt in response. Yahaba adjusts the manga so he can hold it with only one hand. He uses his free hand to stroke Kyoutani’s hair.

“You really don’t want to talk to him? You can’t ignore him forever, you know. And besides you miss him.”

Kyoutani buries his face on Yahaba’s chest and groans. Yahaba sighs.

“I know you didn’t forgive him yet, but won’t it be easier if you guys talked?”

Kyoutani lifts eyes just sufficient to look at Yahaba’s. It’s an awkward angle, since he’s lying on top of him, but it’s enough to let Yahaba see his incredulous gape.

“Right, I forgot.” He sighs. “You Kyoutani men don’t talk. You communicate through your fists.”

Kyoutani starts to rub his face against his chest as if shaking his head in denial. Yahaba laughs.

“Sorry, sorry! That tickles, stop!”

Kyoutani stops. He just stays there silently for a few more minutes. Yahaba goes back to reading and leaves him be, absently stroking his hair. They could stay like that for hours. Maybe until Yahaba’s mother came back from wherever she went. Kyoutani always locks the door, but he wonders what would happen if one day he forgot to do so.

“Will you ever tell your folks?” He asks after a while. “About us?”

“Of course I will.” Yahaba puts his manga down. “I can’t hide my boyfriend from them for the rest of my life, can I? Why? Do you want me to?”

Kyoutani pretends that he’s not blushing because Yahaba just implied that they’ll be together for the rest of their lives.

“No, you don’t need to. I don’t mind things like they’re now. Just wondering how they would react.”

“Is that so?” Yahaba hums thoughtfully. “Well… I think mom would be okay with it. Dad maybe will complain, but I think he’ll accept once the shock passes. And Akemi… Akemi already knows. Like… She doesn’t know, but she… _knows_. You know?”

Kyoutani scoffs.

“Why do I even try to talk to you?” Yahaba groans.

“Because you like me. You like me too much.”

“That’s true. I wonder why.”

“ _Oi_.”

Yahaba laughs when Kyoutani pretends to get angry, but even with all these years of practice, he can’t glare at Yahaba when they’re like this. Instead, Kyoutani uses his forearms to balance his upper body over Yahaba as he leans for a kiss. Yahaba is more than happy to kiss him back, following their usual rough and sweet pattern. Kyoutani bites his lower lip softly and then rains delayed kisses on every inch of his face.

After a while, he pulls back and just looks at the boy beneath him. He always had a thing for Yahaba’s face. It makes him extremely happy that he’s the one that gets to see it from so up close.

“Hey.” Yahaba calls softly, reaching for his face and caressing his cheek. Kyoutani only hums drowsily to let him know that he’s listening. “Are you okay?”

It takes him a moment for him to think about it, after all he can’t be fully alert when Yahaba’s beautiful face is just there for him to reach. He’s obviously more than okay. However he knows that Yahaba wants to know about more than this very moment. He wants to know about Kyoutani’s life in general.

Kyoutani thinks about it. His life is certainly not perfect. There are some days that are very difficult, actually. And several things Kyoutani wants to fix, but is not sure how, and things that he can’t fix at all, so he has to wait for time to solve them. He hates the feeling of being powerless. Nevertheless, a lot of things are falling into their places lately. He learned that there are times that he’ll need help. Situations in which will take more than him alone to solve.

“Yeah. I’m okay.”

He’s not alone anymore.


End file.
